Zest
by Aria6
Summary: How do you turn a Maverick made reploid copy of Zero to the side of all that is good and right? Answer, you don't. But Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n Roll get him close enough what's a few crimes and illegal weapons between species, anyways? Summary written by
1. Chapter 1

Looking back on it, his interest in becoming a Hunter probably started with the graffiti. Not the usual way of getting interested in Hunter HQ… but it had been one heck of a fun thing to do.

Zest capped his can of spray paint, and wiped a bit off his face. Normally, he bore an uncanny resemblance to Zero, but right now his long blond hair was spiky with paint. It would have taken a close scrutiny to make it through the accidental paint job.

"Zest... that is just beautiful." Zest's sister and lover, Angel, gazed up at the wall in awe. She was a slender, athletic girl with brown hair. Her midriff baring top revealed a serpent tattoo, twining on her belly.

"You think? Urf!" Zest sneezed, and wiped a bit more paint off his face. "Mmm, I think I'm high on the fumes. And it's a good buzz. The scent of victory." He gazed up at his creation again for along moment. "But, truly... is it good?"

"Dude." The guy with them, his brother Mort, said reverently as he stared up. "You just spray painted a two story tall, half-naked Reploid chick with the slogan 'Hunters rule' on the side of the new Maverick Hunter building. This is more than good... it is history."

"Aww, thanks."

"Yeah, we'll be hearing about this in the news for months!" Angel chimed in.

"I am so friggin' proud of myself. You guys make me feel great." Zest said, basking in his siblings approval.

"Let's make you feel better!" Mort slapped him on the back, grinning. "Celebration, and the drinks are on me!"

"Awesome!" The three walked away, chattering and enjoying themselves...

* * *

"...And our top story today. Unknown perpetrators spray painted obscene graffiti on the Maverick Hunter Headquarters today..." 

"Obscene, but beautifully done, you asshole! Beautifully done!" A younger sister, a redhead with pale skin, called to the announcer.

"Shh! Shut up, we're listening." One of Zest's brother's chimed in. He was the oldest, almost thirty, and looked part something ethnic. And their "dad" was as Caucasian as their mom. But then, Zest vaguely remembered that she had made ends meet with porno flicks a lot, back when he was just setting up. She still did it now, of course, but it was for fun now. God knew how many of the kids actually belonged to their dad, but the thought didn't seem to trouble him.

A picture of the graffiti popped up, and the crowd burst into howls. The TV station had used strategic boxes to hide the most risqué features of the breasts, and covered up something that the hand was doing, lower...

"...police are still looking for the perpetrators..."

"Aw, our baby is wanted by the police! You're growing up!" Zest looked up at his "mother" with a grin. She was a slim lady, fair skinned, with dark red hair. And a figure that had only become more beautiful with repeated motherhood.

"Thanks, ma." Angel poked him in the ribs as the news continued.

"Maverick Hunter X was quoted as saying that this juvenile, obscene act will be punished..."

"Well, he's right about the juvenile part, anyway..." Angel said with a grin, as several of the others hissed and booed.

"... Maverick Hunter Zero is quoted as saying morale has never been higher in his unit..." Everyone burst out laughing and giggling.

"Dude! Your real father is pretty cool!" Mort exclaimed. "Kick ass!" Zest basked in the approval.

"So Zest, gonna go legit? Join the Hunters?" His sister Kumba asked, leaning over the seat and grinning. She was a slim girl, with a Japanese appearance. She was also a freelance assassin. "Or maybe learn what I have to teach you?"

"No thanks, Kumba. Maybe I'll join the Hunters, someday, but right now I'll just learn more of Drake's stuff." Drake was a sneak thief, and off sleeping right now after a long night's work. They were recording it for him, though.

"Oh well, if you ever wanna learn my stuff, he'll have already taught you half of it anyway. Useful. Well, looks like the programs over, I'm gonna go clean my guns." The group slowly broke up, and Zest just sat back, lacing his fingers behind his head. He felt just great...

* * *

Zest gazed up at the side of the Maverick Hunter HQ, vaguely sad. His sister and brother were with him, and his sister was angry enough to spit nails. 

"I can't believe they're doin' that! You put so much effort into it! It's just so wrong!" She hissed. The picture was being painted over, and was half gone already. Mort just looked at his feet, hands stuck into his pockets.

Zest looked at his sister, and finally shrugged. "It's the nature of graffiti art. Ya know? It's a transitory art form."

"You... don't mind?" Mort said, a little wonderingly. For most graffiti, that made sense but this... was a real masterpiece. Climbing up the building to do it had been dangerous, too, even forgetting about the paint fumes.

"Hell, I mind, but I'm looking on the bright side. And the bright side is..." Zest suddenly grinned. "I'll get to do it again in a few months!" His sibs stared at him, then burst out laughing.

"Dude! Have I ever told you I like the way you think?" His brother clapped him on the shoulder, and Zest grinned.

"Lots, but you can tell me as often as you like." The three walked off again, laughing and chattering...

* * *

"Dad... it's getting too dangerous. They know I'm around here." Zest said, shifting uncomfortably. His father, a lean, middle aged man with blond hair going grey, was watching him expressionlessly. "It's time I went before they find out I'm with the family." 

"I must agree." His father finally said, and Zest sighed, depressed and relieved at the same time. He was glad there wouldn't be an argument... but sad that his father agreed. It was just hard, leaving everything behind. "But son... we will always be here for you... and there's more than enough time to give you a proper send off."

And they did. Everyone available was gathered for the next morning... almost twenty family members... to say goodbye. Zest clasped hands with all of them, hugs, getting and giving well wishes and advice.

"Anytime you need a good gun, grandson, come to me and I'll set you up." Gram-gram, an innocent looking old lady, told him with a smile.

"Remember the stuff I taught you, in case the Hunter stuff doesn't pan out." Drake the sneak thief said with a grin, thumping him on the shoulder.

"Watch yourself out there, bitch." Angel said, eyes moist. "You too, street whore." And Zest had given Angel a kiss, to go with his kind sentiments.

"I'll miss you, man. Just stay safe." Mort said, giving Zest a quick hug. "You too, Mort." Leaving his childhood friends was the hardest thing...

"Gamble with your life, not your money. I've done both, and the second really sucks."

"Anytime you need someone killed, just give me a call, and I'll give you the special family rate."

"I'd give you advice, but I just got outta jail for the third time, so I ain't doin' so hot. Just learn for yourself, I guess."

The advice went on, and Zest tried to remember it... even the silly parts. The warm messages made him feel fuzzy inside, the expressions of caring. He finally reached his father and mother.

His mother was holding his little sister, and embraced him. "We'll miss you, son." She murmured, then gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "And remember, we'll support you in your lifestyle choice-"

"Ma. I'm Zest, and I'm not gay. Your confusing me with Jordan again." Zest reached over to tickle the toddler. "Bye bye, sweetling." Then he went on to his dad.

Dad had a full pack in one hand, and a wallet in the other. "Here you go, son. Gramma and I packed this up for you. Don't use up the ammunition all in one place. And this..." He gave Zest the wallet. He could feel the thickness of it... at a quick estimate, he judged there was probably five hundred dollars in it. "Good luck, son."

"You too, dad." He gave his father a final hug, then began to walk away, to find the rest of his life...

* * *

Maverick Hunter headquarters was different from the inside. For one thing, the outer wall was mostly a shell... inside was a carefully kept plaza, full of green trees, grass, and a few concession stands. It sort of made sense, though, when he thought about it... the Maverick Hunters liked to keep their troops close to home, and that meant having certain amenities on the property. 

"I always wondered why this place took up a whole block." He murmured to himself. But then, this was the headquarters, and with teleporters, the Hunters tended to make rather monolithic stations for themselves. It was cheaper than maintaining several smaller ones.

Not that Zest cared. He shrugged the backpack into place, feeling a few of the guns shift position. Gram-gram had outdone herself on it... it was full of some of the niftiest hardware possible to buy. And enough ammo that if he'd used it all in one place, it's be one HELL of a slaughter.

"Hmm..." He walked over to the building, gazing around as he did. Some of the hunters were giving him curious looks... not surprising. Except for the armor color, which was purple and black, he might have been Zero's long lost twin brother.

Zest walked in, and gazed down at the receptionist in the lobby for a long moment. The lobby was very spacious, with a set of seats. Several of them were occupied. Zest glanced over the occupants, quickly forming a "young Hunter wannabee's" opinion in his mind. Most of them were so shiny and eager that they glittered.

The girl was still typing something. Zest leaned against the counter, boredom getting the better of him.

"Yo, lady, can I like get some service over here before I die of old age?" He said, watching the girl start and look up. Then she blinked, and almost started again... then shook her head.

"Oh... I'm sorry! Um, what can I help you with?" She said, standing up and smoothing down her skirt.

"I just want to apply for the Hunters." Zest said patiently. The girl nodded, fishing out a piece of paper.

"It'll be about an hour for the interview... if you could fill this out while you wait..." She offered him a pen, then hesitated. "You... you look a lot like Zero. Um, why is that?" Zest grinned. He'd found a perfect explanation.

"My creator was like, a huge fan boy of the blondie." He said, shaking his head to send his blond hair rippling.

"Oh... just wondering..." Zest took a seat, looking over the application. He filled it in casually, with minimal real information. Some questions were a bit difficult, but he and his father had hammered out lies for everything before he left.

Then he just sat back, letting his mind wander, until...

"Hi! You're applying to be a Hunter, too?" A bright, chipper young voice sounded from behind him. He turned his head to look at one of the other newbies, in green and yellow armor, leaning forward in his chair. The newbie he'd been chatting to had just gone off for his interview, and now he'd switched targets, it seemed. "I'm Chip. Who are you?"

"Zest." Zest offered the kid a hand. He wondered how old Chip was. He had such a painful newness... "Yeah, I'm going to be a Hunter. You too, or are you here for the engineering corps?" Chip blushed. Zest absently noted that he had a fine dust of freckles across his cheeks and nose, and very, very fair skin.

"Oh, I'm here to be a Hunter. I hope I'm accepted! It's been my dream for months!" Zest lifted an eyebrow. Months?

"How old are you?" He asked curiously.

"Um... a year." Chip admitted. Zest closed his eyes for a moment, feeling almost pained.

"Shouldn't you be like, stealing cars or something?" Youthful, kiddish play... a confused look passed over Chip's face. "Nevermind. I must be about, oh, three years old now." Yeah, Angel had been fifteen when he met her at that party...

"Oh, you're an OLD one then." Chip said innocently. "One step away from the scrapyard?" Zest blinked, then laughed, a full throated, happy laugh that made people all over the lobby look at them.

"I like you, kid! So, what weapons you got?" He asked, grinning.

"Oh, I have the X-buster, of course, and a really neat laser whip!" Chip said proudly. "It's one of the newest models, and I'm pretty good with it. What do you have?"

"Oh..." Zest paused, forehead crinkling, as he thought about it. "Well, my Z-sabre, X-buster, my TP-340, Mandarine X-47, XK-594, Zeus-68, a Nova Starduster, and ammo for all of 'em... unh... Chip?" The newbie was looking at him with an awed, disbelieving expression.

"You're kidding! You got all that? Really? Where?" He almost whispered. Zest grinned, holding up his backpack and shaking it. It clanked.

"Got 'em right here." He set it back down, as Chip watched wide eyed.

"But... the Nova Starduster, that's a Maverick weapon, isn't it? How'd you GET it? How'd you get the others? Wow!" Chip said reverently. Those weapons were supposed to be unavailable for anyone outside the Hunters, and for good reason.

"Gram-gram. She's a black market arms dealer. The Starduster... she bought that off a Hunter who needed the money, I think. It was a trophy." Zest explained. Chip nodded slowly, eyes wide.

"Can I see it? Can I see the Starduster?" He asked imploringly. Zest frowned.

"It's at the bottom of my backpack, and I'd rather not pull everything out in front of everybody... how about the Mandarine X-47?" Before Chip answered, he pulled up his leg, carefully extracting something...

"You have a holster built into your LEG?" Chip asked, awed again, and Zest grinned, jacking out the clip before he handed the gun to Chip. It was painted in his colors, to match his armor perfectly. In a battle, it would be next to impossible to notice... until it was too late.

"Best way to carry it, and give someone a nasty surprise, ya know?" He watched, amused, as Chip examined the gun. A few of the other recruits had noticed, and started crowding over.

"Man, cool gun. Can I see?" A young girl in orange exclaimed.

"Got any more?" A big Reploid in grey armor asked. Zest grinned up at him.

"Yeah, but not for you baboons. You'll have to get your own." He meant it as a joke, but the big newbie looked on the verge of taking offense for a moment... until Zest fixed him with a malevolent glare. He backed down with a grumble. The other newbies, fixated on the pretty little gun, missed the interaction.

"GREAT paint job. Talk about concealed weaponry. I want to get me one of those!" An older looking newbie proclaimed, checking the gun over professionally. "Tiny little thing, though. How much damage does it do? What's the accuracy like?" He was right about it being tiny... the gun could fit neatly into the palm of his hand. If you didn't know better, it looked like a children's toy.

"Spitting's more accurate past fifty feet. Damage depends on the ammo your using, though." Zest opened his hand to display the small clip he'd jacked out before giving the gun to Chip. "This only has four bullets, but their armor piercing HE rounds." The older newbie looked impressed.

"I didn't know they made rounds like that so small. They must cost a fortune." Zest nodded. That was very accurate... he'd have to save up a lot to replace his bullets, even with Grandma's family discount.

"The best thing is, it's way underrated. A lot of people sniff at it as a "girly" gun." Zest took back the little gun, smiling. "But it's a great desperation weapon, especially against bad guys who like to be cruel and see you whimper. Act defeated, hopeless... and when they get too close..." Zest suddenly set the gun against Chip's head, startling him. "Bang. At point blank range, there wouldn't be enough of the brainpan left to scoop up with a teaspoon." Chip leaned back slightly.

"Okay... can you not point it at me?" He said, a little bit queasy, and Zest laughed.

"It's unloaded, silly." But he put the clip back in, and put the gun back into his leg. "Okay, playtimes over."

"But... the Starduster...?" Chip started, but Zest shook his head firmly.

"Not right now. After we get accepted, I promise, I'll show you guys everything." That satisfied most of the rookies, who settled back into their seats... although a lot closer to Zest, now. Chip sighed, but seemed to realize he wasn't getting a look at the Starduster today.

"Oh, I hope I get accepted..." He said, fretting. "I hope they like my interview... if only I can make it through this, I'll be a Hunter!" Zest turned around in his seat, giving him an incredulous look.

"Are you kidding?" He demanded, surprising Chip. "The interview's pathetic. You'd have to be a total nutjob or crackhead not to get past this part."

"You... would? I thought we would be Hunters after this." He said in surprise. One of the girls nodded.

"Yeah, me too. How do you know we won't?" She asked him, a challenge in her voice. Zest shrugged.

"My aunt used to be a Hunter, and she told me all about it. The interview is to weed out the nutjobs and the terminally stupid. Then they put you through the combat sims, and THAT'S where we get ranked and filed." Zest tilted his head at Chip. "I mean, think about it, you can be spiffy on an interview and still be deadly clumsy, or just really unlucky, one of those people who get nailed every time. And the combat sim's'll be used to give us a quick evaluation." Zest suddenly grinned. "I'm going to do my best to blow the top off them!" There was a slightly nervous laugh from the other recruits, who went back to chattering among themselves...

Except for Chip. He was looking pale and almost sick. Zest gave him a puzzled glance.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked, curious.

"I... I just thought I'd know for sure today." He said miserably. "I don't know how I'll do on the combat sims... I'm okay, but I'm not that good. You... you seem so confident." Chip bit his lip, looking at Zest. "Are you so sure you'll do okay?"

"Oh yeah, I'm sure." Zest sat facing forward, away from Chip, and laced his fingers behind his head. "Dad put me through the paces. I can fight with the best of 'em, Chip. I'm not worried a bit. If you want, once we pass the interview, we can go down to one of the training rooms and practice. I'm sure they'll let us."

"Wow... you'd do that? Thanks!" Chip said, eyes lighting up a bit. He was still worried... but a little less. "Oh... Zest? What's your aunt doing now? She quit the Hunters?"

"Got too badly hurt, actually. Now she directs porno movies." Zest said casually, his back still to Chip. So he missed Chip's eyes bugging out.

"She... directs... porno movies?" He managed to squeak out. Zest chuckled to himself.

"Hooo yeah. Ever seen any of them? Horny Teenage Sorority Sluts, Hot and Ready, Twice is Not Enough, and, my personal favorite, Biker Bimbo Chicks hit LA?" Chip looked even more horrified.

"N-no, I've never seen a porno movie..." He gulped. Zest turned around again to look at him, surprised.

"You haven't? I'll have to show you the Sorority Sluts one." Zest was about to tell Chip about how his mom and sister both starred in it... but then decided to take pity on the rookie, who looked to be about on the edge of a nervous spasm. "So, Chip, where you from?"

"Me? Oh... the Mitsaka Corporation made me." Chip relaxed again, as he talked about himself. Zest couldn't help but smile. Chip reminded him a little of his younger brother Kevin, who tended to be nervous and high-strung. It was probably just the stress of trying out for the Hunters, but Chip was acting a lot like him right now. "Then I was sold to a smaller company to work as part of the maintenance crew." Chip sighed, and not happily. "They... weren't too happy when I decided I wanted to be a Hunter, but I'd already submitted the forms, so they had to let me go when the payment came through."

"Payment?" Zest said, puzzled.

"Yes... didn't you know?" Chip said, surprised. "When a Reploid wants to join the Hunters, the Hunters pay back what their worth to the company who owns them. If it doesn't work out, that money is taken back... um... you didn't know that?"

"No, I don't think my family ever..." Zest trailed off, suddenly making several connections in his mind. "Hairy flipping gods, I think they did! No wonder Gramma packed me so much weaponry and high explosive rounds... and dad gave me so much money! I thought they were just being really generous." He suddenly laughed. "That's rich! It's not like I cost them anything to begin with."

"You didn't? How did they get you?" Chip asked, a little bewildered.

"Oh, I just showed up, kinda like a lost little kitten looking for a home." Zest explained, which was true enough... and the next part was a complete lie. He'd worked it out with his father before leaving home, and it was what he'd written on his application. "My creator was killed off in a Maverick attack, only a few weeks after he made him, so I didn't know up from down when it came to how the world worked. I wandered off, until I met Angel... that's one of my sisters... and she dragged me home. And that's how the family got their first Reploid member." Chip nodded slowly, wide-eyed.

Suddenly, a female Hunter in pink armor came out. Zest remembered vaguely that she'd came out twice before, but he hadn't really been paying attention. But now...

"Chip Chase." She announced his name, and Chip got up to follow her.

"See you later, Zest!" Zest smiled, giving him a friendly wave as he left. He really did like the youngster.

He settled back into his chair, just savoring the silence. A few of the recruits were talked, now, but most were just patiently waiting their turn. Zest closed his eyes...

"Zest McCoy?" Zest jerked awake at the sound of his name, realizing he'd slipped into a doze. He stood, picking up his backpack and slinging it over one shoulder. He followed her down the hall.

He was brought into a brightly lit room, with a sturdy table and two chairs, one in front of the table, one behind. There was a slim, short, grim looking Hunter standing behind the table.

"Take a seat." He ordered curtly, and after Zest took a seat, he sat himself. Zest regarded him curiously. As Reploids went, he looked old. Eternally youthful face, of course... but there was nothing innocent or young about him. A wicked scar traced a path up one cheek, across an eye. The eye had been repaired, but the scar left. He wasn't quite sure why.

"So, Zest." The Hunter gazed at him with a cool, opaque look. "I am Phase." Zest nodded slightly. Phase looked down, touching a paper in front of him. "I see you were a unique model, made by someone who was very... impressed with Zero?" His tone said he'd have rather put it a different way, and Zest suddenly grinned.

"Yessir. I think he was a bit potty." Zest said, and Phase actually smiled.

They quickly ran through the answers on his application, Phase asking for some clarifications. Zest answered... lying the entire time, of course, but he'd rehearsed the lies so carefully they felt natural. Then they got to the tougher questions.

"Why did you want to join the Hunters?" Phase asked, and Zest moved his shoulders uncomfortably. This question deserved an honest answer, and he thought about it for a moment.

"Well... I always thought the Hunters were pretty cool." Phase stayed expressionless, but Zest had the feeling that "cool" wouldn't cut a lot of ice here. "And I've thought for years that the Mavericks were full of crap. I'm part of the McCoy family, and its a huge family. The thought of someone hurting my sibs, my cousins, just because their human makes my blood boil. It's wrong." He looked down at the table for a moment, then up again. He thought he could sense real interest in Phase, now. "I still wouldn't have left home, but... it was time to go. I still miss 'em." There was a short pause as Phase considered his reply, then nodded somberly.

"Very well. You're accepted. And yes, you are NOT actually in the Hunters until you pass the combat simulations." Phase's voice was very tart, and Zest hid a grin. Apparently, the other rookies hadn't assumed he was correct.

"I already knew that, sir, and I was surprised to find out the others didn't." He said lightly, and Phase shot him a sharp glance.

"Ah. So you were the one who told them. How did you know?" He asked with a lifted eyebrow, and Zest smiled.

"My aunt. She was a member of the Hunters. Maybe you knew her... Abigail McCoy?" Zest asked. Phase looked quite surprised.

"I didn't know her. I do know OF her." Phase said, almost adding something else... then visibly decided not to. Zest grinned.

"That she took the virginity of a whole generation of Hunters, no doubt." He said with a laugh, causing Phase to cough for a moment, then shake his head.

Zest was ushered into a room, with about ten other rookies. Chip was there, and immediately gravitated to Zest's side. Phase gave a nod to a young Hunter supervising them.

"There's enough. Show them around." She nodded back, and immediatly started distributing papers.

"You were right, Zest. We aren't Hunters until we finish those combat sims..." Chip started, then was handed a sheet. "Hunh? Oh! The setup of the HQ!" Zest snagged one, and looked carefully at it.

It was a well done map of the recruit wing, where they would be staying. All the rooms were neatly numbered, the training facilities, mess halls, medic centres and recreational areas marked.

Once everyone had one, the female Hunter spoke.

"You will all be assigned roommates, then shown to your quarters. If any of you have preferences in who you wish to have as a roommate, please speak now." Chip suddenly waved. "Yes?"

"Urm... if Zest wants, can we be roommates?" Chip said, glancing at Zest hopefully. Zest blinked. He hadn't really expected that...

"Sure, I guess." He shrugged slightly. At least Chip was easy to get along with. The Hunter nodded, noting it down, and quickly assigned the others together.

"This way." She led them to the recruit wing, and saw all the recruits to their quarters. "You may visit any of the training or recreational facilities. Report to meeting room 1A at 0800 tomorrow morning." Then they were left to their own devices.

Zest regarded their room with slight disgust. It was just a little box, really, with two bunk beds and a small bathroom off to one side. No bathtub, just a shower. Still, at least that beat communal showers. Still...

"You want the top bunk?" He asked Chip, who was putting away his few things. Chip glanced up.

"Sure. Um... want to go to the training room now? And maybe test out your guns?" He asked eagerly, and Zest laughed.

"You never give up, do you?" He shook his head again. "No, not until I'm a Hunter. This stuff IS illegal, you know." Chip looked very disappointed, but nodded.

"Okay..." They quickly left for the training room. When they got their, it was already half full of recruits, practicing hard. Zest almost winced as he saw a pair trying to duel with Z-sabers. Clumsy was a charitable description.

"Okay Chip." Zest unsheathed his Z-saber, taking a combat stance. "Show me how you use that whip." Chip grinned, pulling out his whip and igniting it, a long line of white power. It was on a low setting, and so was Zest's Z-saber. They could still give each other nasty burns, but nothing more.

"Sure. Brace yourself, here I come!" Their fencing was tentative at first, circling around each other carefully. Zest had fought against a whip before, but only once, and it was as difficult to counter as he remembered. It tended to catch on the armor, when it hit, too.

But he caught Chip off guard when he tucked into a summersault, slamming into Chip's legs and knocking him down. A moment later, there was a sword at Chip's throat. Zest grinned down at him for a moment, enjoying his shocked expression, then stood back up.

"Try it again?" He said, offering Chip a hand. Chip accepted it gingerly, standing.

"Okay..." This time, Zest prolonged the match... and got a feel for Chips fighting style. He laid Chip on the ground with a kick to the face, then again with a choke hold, before calling a halt so they could sit on the piled up matts on the side of the room.

"Chip?" Chip looked up, discouragement on his face. Zest had laid him out three times, and he hadn't even come close. "I think I see what the problem is with your fighting style."

"I'm too slow." He said dejectedly. "I just can't seem to keep up with you." But Zest shook his head.

"No, not that. You're slower than me, sure, but that's just pracice. No, you can't seem to react to anything related to body contact. You were taught by a fencing master, weren't you?" He asked. Chip blinked in surprise.

"I... suppose so..." He said, uncertain. "But you don't fence with whips..."

"No, but its the idea. Body contact is a strict no-no in tournament fencing. But this isn't a game, it's real." Zest's expression was serious as he looked at Chip. "In real life, you'll get kicked, punched, bitten and choked. Because no one's giving points or enforcing rules... the only rule is, whoever comes out alive, wins. But you're still playing by the rules, so when I kick you or get you in a choke hold, you don't know what to do about it. You don't know hand to hand, right?"

"No... I didn't have much time, and I thought I'd need to know weapons more." Chip said with an embarrassed flush. "I've only really been training for three months." Zest blinked, then whistled softly.

"You're doing kick-ass good for three months, Chip. But would you like to learn a few hand to hand techniques? My dad always said, your body is your best weapon." Chip thought about that only for a second.

"Thanks, Zest, I'd really like that." He said shyly. Zest grinned, pushing himself off the matts.

"Okay, lets start with some basic moves." Zest worked on teaching Chip some very basic kicks, blocks and throws. They ended up having the most fun with the throws.

"Good one!" Zest staggered to his feet, massaging his shoulder. Chip had given it quite a wrench when he'd thrown him. "You did that perfectly."

"Yes, but you let me do it." Chip protested mildly. Zest shrugged, then grinned.

"So what? You took the opening. Someone else will give you it for real, someday. Hey... wanna learn some neat stuff for infiltrations?" Drake had taught him a few things... with the caveat to never, ever kill people when you were stealing. Theft was one thing, but the police got awfully intense about murders. These were non-lethal techniques that could easily BE useful for killing, if you had a knife or garotte.

"Sure!" Chip answered with a smile. He was having quite a lot of fun, although he'd need to practice all of these moves a lot, LOT more before he could use them.

"Okay, walk in front of me..." Chip did so, expecting a hit from behind... but it was still shocking, when a strong arm encircled his throat and was slammed to the ground. Zest let him go almost immediately, but it was still impressive. He coughed slightly.

"...Wow! Show me how." Zest grinned, and showed him slowly, demonstrating on him. They were attracting a lot of attention from the other rookies now...

"Would you mind teaching the rest of us, too?" An older, solemn faced rookie asked. Zest paused for a moment. Choke holds were actually something best taught in a group... it was hard for Chip to see the moves when he was the one being choked and thrown.

"Okay, gather round if your interested, then." Soon he had a group of around fifteen attentive rookies. "Okay, watch close now... Chip..." Looking a little martyred, Chip turned around again, and Zest slowly demonstrated the move. "Now, this move is a bit different between the girls and guys. A girl has a lower centre of balance, you need to throw from the hips. A lot of girls make that mistake, and if you do, you'll be the one thrown. Chip, remember that counter to a choke hold? Let's show them an incorrect example." Zest tackled Chip again... and Chip neatly flipped him over his shoulder, getting him down with a hand at his throat. Zest grinned at him, then sat up.

"Okay, now can anyone tell me what I did wrong?" The lesson was a lot of fun... Zest was a bit surprised at how much he enjoyed teaching them. He'd never taught anyone before... most of his family was older and more capable already, and those that weren't, had other teachers.

"Ready to try it? Line up..." The rookies found a makeshift order, and Zest grinned at Chip, who was still standing beside him. "You too, I get to be the punching bag this time. Okay! All of you are going to try to take me down, one at a time. Pretend I'm a Maverick sentry, and you want to get in this base quietly. If I can get off even one scream, you've lost surprise and might be massacred. Ready?" Zest turned around, walking casually, like a real sentry would.

A heavy tread... Zest turned around with a pained expression.

"And try to walk quietly, Mavericks aren't deaf you know." The rookie in question blushed, and the others laughed, but he was quieter on his next try.

Zest had a lot of fun with it. Most of the rookies messed it up the first time, of course, but he could give each of them advice.

"That was just too slow, too tentative. They won't wait for you to get an arm around their throats." He advised the yellow rookie he'd just thrown.

"Remember that mistake girls make? That's what you did. You're half my size, if you try to throw me from the shoulders, you're asking to die." Zest paused, looking at the diminuitive young rookie in front of him. "And, well, size really matters for this. You can still learn to do a choke hold, but you'll have to be even better at it than most." That was just a fact of life.

"Is there something wrong with your left arm?" Zest looked at the latest rookie he'd thrown with a puzzled frown. "You felt strangely weak." The youngster sighed, levering himself up... with his right arm.

"I was damaged when my owner was killed, a month ago. I was part of the property her sister inherited, but she didn't really want me, and it was never properly repaired." He said, his expression resigned and slightly sad. Zest winced. He couldn't imagine a life like that...

"That sucks. But, it's a problem." He rubbed the gem in his helmet thoughtfully. "You might be able to get around it in combat, a lot of people use weapons that only need one arm, but still... it'll show up as a weakness. And you can't do a choke hold with your left arm, period." The rookie stood, and nodded tiredly. "So... I do it with my left arm, because that's comfortable for me, but I know how to do it with me right." He motioned the next rookie in line forward. "Let me show you."

He helped that rookie, the next... and then...

He was tackled perfectly by the next in line. Zest grinned to himself, tapping his arm, the signal to let go. Then again. But the grip only tightened, even when he tapped for a third time...

Zest squirmed, eyes gone wide, as his lungs screamed for air. It took a tremendous force of will to carefully twist, just enough to...

Zest's knee slammed up, hitting the startled rookie in the crotch. He yelped loudly, and Zest managed to jerk free.

"You...!" The next part of what Zest said would have been one long, continuous beep if it had been on TV. He punctuated the creative curses with wide, expansive gestures. "What the HELL did you think you were doing? I tapped your arm three times, you shit!" The large, grey rookie who'd tried to choke him into submission stumbled to his feet, and the expression on his face was far from pleasant. Zest's eyes narrowed. He remembered this guy from earlier... but he turned to the class.

"Okay, Error type 3, the teacher has crashed... you guys know what to do now. You can practice on each other for a while." He wanted out, away from this rookie, before there was a fight. And he just wanted to sit down. His throat hurt, and he was feeling just a bit shaken.

"But...!" One of the others started, and Zest shook his head firmly.

"No. That's the benefit of not being a real instructor... I don't have to instruct you monkeys unless I feel like it." There was a chorus of laughter. "You can practice against each other." The group slowly broke up, and squared off in one on one pairs. Zest walked over to the matts, finding a seat again. He just stared away, caught in his own thoughts...

He was surprised when someone sat beside him, but not surprised at all when he looked up and realized it was Chip.

"Hey Chip. Don't you want to practice some more?" He asked, and Chip shook his head.

"Not really... I thought you might like some company." For a long moment, they sat silently, just watching the other rookies practice. "Zest? What do you think of them?" Chip finally asked, and Zest frowned again. He really shouldn't answer that... he was only another rookie, not a Hunter. But with a few notable exceptions, the other rookies were... treating him like a Hunter... if not quite as respectfully. He finally shrugged. There was no harm in telling Chip what he thought.

"Most of them are okay, but there's a few I don't think will make the cut tomorrow, and some that have real problems. That kid in the red, Alan... he's just too slow. I'm willing to bet he'll be gone tomorrow." Zest laced his fingers behind his head. "I wonder about Chalene. She's not that great, and just so tiny. And Maven will be gone, too. He's just plain clumsy. Kikana, the guy with the arm... I don't think he'll be cut, but I sure hope they can fix that. He might get away with it for a long time, but someone will take advantage of it someday and he'll be dead." Chip nodded solemnly.

"What... about me?" He finally asked, tentatively. Zest suddenly gave him a grin.

"Oh, you're easily the best of the lot, barring myself of course. All you need is training and time, and you'll be good." Zest said matter of factly, and Chip blushed.

"Thanks." They both watched the rookies in silence for a moment... "What about that guy who choked you?" Zest frowned, touching his throat. It still ached a little.

"I don't know... he's good, but I wonder if he might get cut. That's a bad attitude he's got." Zest sighed, and shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Or maybe it's just that he doesn't like me. I'm not universally loved."

"You aren't? How could that possibly be?" Chip said in mock horror. Zest laughed.

"I don't know, some people seem to manage." Zest grinned at Chip as he laughed. "I'm just glad I have a good friend." He really was. In his family, he'd almost been able to take that for granted... his sibs were his best friends... but away from everyone he knew, he'd been worried.

But now he had a friend. Life was definitely looking up.


	2. Chapter 2

X sighed, looking over the reports on the newest rookies. It was something he only did in his spare time, when he was bored, since they were actually under the command of Vosk, the recruit Commander. But it was always good to know a bit about the future Hunters.

Especially since the fighting had been so bad lately. X wasn't sure what had triggered the upswing, but it had been escalating for six months. They'd need to hurry these kids through training and get them in fighting mode.

X blinked in surprise as he noticed three reports that had been coded. Well, they were all coded, but most of the codes were either satisfactory or rejected. It was unusual to see a rookie getting a proficiency level code from his entrance exams. And so many from one small class was doubly unusual. He pulled them out.

The first made him frown. Very proficient... and with troubling personality notes. The code was more a note to keep an eye on him than anything.

The next made X smile. A rookie who already had basic Hunter proficiency, and seemed to be a very quick learner. He'd do well, and would probably make a good member of his squad, or Zero's. The personality profile seemed to indicate someone who'd be a pleasure to deal with, cheerful and willing.

The last... X eyed the code askance, wondering if it was a mistake. Someone had apparently decided they had a superstar on their hands. Indicated proficiency was enough to slide him right into Zero's or X's squad without any training at all, if it was accurate.

He read it carefully, with a mix of amazement, pleasure, and worry. The initial part was what the recruit had filled out himself... sketchy, except for a "notification of kin" that noted his Aunt, Abigail McCoy, who'd once been a Hunter. X wracked his brain futilely trying to remember her, then gave up.

Then it got down to the more interesting things. The interviewer, Pulse, had found him intelligent and that he seemed to have acceptable motivation. That was standard.

The recruits didn't know it, but they were observed constantly the first day after they joined, to see how they would interact with each other, who would show the initiative to practice, how they acted in general. Those watchers pretended to be fellow rookies, in the interests of not making them self-conscious.

Normally they only made a few notes, but this time, there were multiple comments from all the watchers. They had been impressed. X's eyes widened as he read a description of how the youngster had started teaching one of the rookies some fairly basic techniques, then was cajoled into teaching everyone. And did it very, very well.

"Shows great leadership ability and grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of each recruit. His comments after they tried to tackle him and failed were very insightful and helpful. I observed him helping a rookie with an injured left arm perform the move with his right, and the rookie mastered it."

"I joined the lineup to learn the move, since I'd never seen it before, and did learn it. The way he handled that one rookie, the one who tried to throttle him, was adequate, although he does have a foul mouth. See rookie Gilgamesh for the full note on that incident." X frowned, and checked. That was the one with the personality note.

The notes went on, making note of a carefree, often silly, but kind and often obliging nature. They also noted that this rookie knew how to say "no" and set limits, which many people had trouble with. He enjoyed being in the spotlight, but didn't actively seek it out. X felt cautiously impressed.

Then he flipped the page, looking at the combat scores. A low whistle escaped his lips.

He'd excelled. The first tests had been nothing but a joke to him, so the evaluators had decided to carefully increase the difficulty, but making it seem as if it were nothing more than the usual. And as the difficulty progressed, his performance had increased exponentially. He'd blasted through all the simulations, finishing in the highest difficulty, the level of the #0 and X squads. A note said that he had seemed to be enjoying himself immensely, concentrating on nothing but the combat.

Already impressed, the evaluators had arranged a final test. Three Hunters, one a member of Zero's squad, had been hurriedly rounded up and briefed as the kid was finishing the last simulation.

Then the evaluator asked him if he wished to try an actual combat simulation against other rookies, using training weapons. The rookie hadn't boasted, but he had laughed, and said if they were willing to try, he certainly was.

And he had taken them all. Still pumped from the simulation, he'd exploded in a whirlwind of action as soon as the fight started... and the evaluator noted that his tactics were very, very effective. In the first minute, one of the Hunters had been down clutching himself in agony, and the other two were hard pressed.

They had tried to double team the rookie, but his relentless energy had forced them apart, breaking the team attack. Then he had eliminated another Hunter with a blow from his training sabre that would have killed her, had it been real.

That had left him facing off the member of Zero's unit. They had engaged in a spirited sword duel... that ended when the Hunter lost track of where he was, and stumbled over his own "dead" teammate, who had stayed where she'd fallen as she was supposed to, to simulate a real life battle. The rookie had moved like a snake, and next thing he had known, he was on the ground with a tiny gun pressed firmly against his forehead. The rookie had laughed and said that now, if this were a real battle, he'd be a prisoner. The Hunter had remarked that a gun that small could hurt, but it wouldn't kill him, even at this range... but the rookie had disagreed with a smile, mentioning armor piercing, high explosive ammunition.

X's face drew into a frown. Where could a rookie have gotten ammo like that? And the Hunter himself had put in a note...

"I would have sworn no rookie could take me down like that, ever. I don't want to sound like sour grapes, but we need to check this kid. One place to get that skill would be with the Mavericks. Same thing with that gun."

X sighed. That was the heart and soul of the worry, with scores this abnormal. He made a note to himself, to show the report to Zero, if his Hunter hadn't already told him about it, and talk to Vosk.

He was interested in finding out where this youngster had gotten his training. He glanced at the report one final time, carefully noting the recruit's name.

Zest.

* * *

At the same moment... unfortunately, if it had been just a little bit later...

Zest and his recruit class were practicing hard. The cuts had been made... pretty much what he'd expected... and they were beginning their classes.

Zest... wasn't exactly bored. But he couldn't help but fidget sometimes, especially when the instructor went over what was just too damn obvious to him. Like how to aim properly. It was enough to make him sigh... to himself, anyway.

A new Hunter stepped up, taking the place of their original instructor. There was a stir of interest in the recruits, and Zest's interest sharpened for a moment. He knew who this was.

Zero. The legendary Red Hunter, in all his glory. Zest was impressed by how alike they looked, now that he was confronted by the original. The same blue eyes, the same face, the same long, golden hair. An air of authority and energy that was similar to Zest's own. For good or ill, Zero had a compelling personality, and Zest listened to him intently...

For about five seconds.

"It's kill or be killed out there. Never show a Maverick mercy..." It was essentially a pep talk and lecture. Zest felt his attention wandering. It wasn't that Zero was wrong on any point, but it was just so... so... worthless to him. He already had killed, several times, and not just Mavericks either. Zest could still remember the one time... he'd won the draw... or lost...

His gaze was caught by a pretty young Huntress, and he eyed her for a moment... then noticed a handsome young Hunter in blue. He looked rather familiar, but Zest just admired his lines for a moment until he left sight. Zest was comfortable with his bisexuality.

"You!" Zest started violently at the sudden yell and finger pointed in his direction. "What did I just say?" Zero demanded sharply. Zest combed his mind futilely for a moment. He had no idea whatsoever.

"Unh... Mavericks bad, Hunters good?" He said weakly, to a bunch of smothered giggles from the other recruits, and some winces. Everyone knew Zest was in for it.

"Out here, where I can see you." Zest sighed, to himself, and stepped out obediently. Zero looked him over, obviously not liking what he saw. "What's this, some kind of cheap imitation? Who made you, recruit?" Zest tensed, feeling a coil of anger building in his stomach. But he kept his cool, answering lightly.

"Not entirely sure, sir, we never got to talk much before the Mavericks killed him. I got adopted after that." Zero paced around him, a bit like a hunting dire cat. Zest felt his shoulders tingle, but managed to stay in one spot.

"Well, rookie, if you want to come anywhere NEAR the glory of the original, you better start paying attention!" Zest's eyes narrowed dangerously, and the anger coiled and snapped.

"You ought to worry more, old timer. Worried you might get out done by the latest model?" He purred, creating a ghastly silence. The recruits stood frozen, watching the confrontation building. Zero was expressionless for a moment... then he grinned, an anticipatory, vulpine grin.

"Shall we see, recruit?" Zero drew his Beam Sabre, and Zest widened his eyes in false innocence.

"Oh, I wouldn't stand a CHANCE against you with a beam sabre! You've had SO much longer to practice, after all." Zest said innocently, surprising a strangled laugh from one of the recruits behind them. But then he grinned, just as wickedly as Zero. "How about something more... elemental? Like fists?" Zest mimed a punch in the air. "Or do you need weapons... sir?" Zero's eyes narrowed, then he laughed harshly.

"I could take a brat like you with one hand tied behind my back." He switched off his Beam Sabre, putting it back in his sheath, and the two began to circle each other.

The first meetings were inconclusive, tentative. But Zest quickly got his measure of Zero. He was good, very good... but somewhat dependant on his Beam Sabre, understandably so, a fistfight with Mavericks was a rare thing. And most important for this, he'd been taught hand to hand combat by a Karate master, or at least that was his style. Zest's style was a mish mash... whatever worked, from several martial arts and just plain dirty fighting.

They attacked each other in earnest, a pair of blurs, and when the trick happened, the recruits almost couldn't see it. Zest's hand moved agilely, Zero reeled as something hit him in the face...

**_CRACK! CRUNCH!_**

"Auuuuughhhh!" Zero lay in the dirt, curled around the centre of his pain, hands pressed against it. Zest turned to the recruits again, dirty and a little dinged up, but grinning. The recruits gazed at him in pure shock.

"That, my fellow rookies, is two techniques of dirty fighting... the first, "throwing dirt in the eyes," and the second, known fondly by my family as the "nutcracker." Now, the trick is, if you do this to an opponent and leave them alive-"

"Grrrrrr..." A gutteral snarl started...

"-It's time to run like hell!" And Zest took off as Zero leaped to his feet with a scream, Beam Sabre leading the way on a merry chase across the field. "Whoo hooo!" Zest whooped as he ran.

This was a lot funner than listening to a lecture.

* * *

At that moment, X had passed through the training ground a few moments before, and was talking with Vosk.

"...Right. We really should do a full background check on that kid, and get him to explain a few things. He refused to give any references." Vosk, a slight Reploid in purple armor, picked up the report on Zest again with a frown. Normally references didn't matter, but... "And the account we sent the payment to for him has been closed, and the name it was under is false. Someone is covering up something. It might be Maverick activity, or it might not, but we-"

X and Vosk were both startled when a rookie burst into the room... Chip, X managed to identify him, the other rookie in this unit to get a good code...

"Sir, sir come quick, Zero's trying to kill Zest!" He gasped out, and X and Vosk both froze for just a split-second.

Then they were both moving. "What?" When they got outside, they could see the recruits milling around, utterly confused... Zero screaming up at the wall of one of the buildings... and up on the wall, skillfully climbing, was a form with blond hair.

"Get back DOWN HERE YOU BEEEEEEEEEPPPP!" X winced, as Zero engaged in profanity completely unsuitable for any age group.

"Make me, old timer!" The rookie up on the building called down. X jogged over, with Vosk, just in time to prevent Zero from starting to climb...

"Zero!" X seized his arm, then gazed up at the purple and black armored Reploid. He was struck by the amazing resemblance between him and Zero... it was really incredible... "Get down here." He ordered Zest sharply as Vosk took Zero's other arm, restraining the swearing Hunter.

"Yes sir." The rookie said brightly, jumping down and landing with a catlike grace. X blinked again. Now that he was close to Zest, he could see the unbelievable similarity... and the slight differences. The recruit was just a trifle heavier, a bit broader in the shoulders than Zero. It was scarcely noticeable, to anyone not intimately acquainted with Zero. His eyes were also a slightly deeper blue, full of life and a... zest for life. X smiled as he thought that. And there was also a tiny scar on the bridge of Zest's nose, as if he'd banged it against something, and felt it was too minor to be worth repairing. But it had left a small mark, lending just a bit of character to his handsome face.

Zest was regarding him with intent interest, as much as X had given him, and X finally blinked.

"Unh... right. Come with us." He turned away, leading Zest off to the room he and Vosk had been alone in, before. He completely missed Zest's quick glance at his butt, as they walked off, Vosk keeping a firm grip on Zero.

This was going to be their first real interaction with this young superstar...

* * *

It also turned out to be an irritating, awful interaction on all sides.

"Look, we need references from you." Vosk tried to sound reasonable. He'd been trying for almost a half hour, and Zest glared at him, his temper fraying.

"How many times do I have to tell you? I can't give you them!" Zest rested his chin on his hand, and eyed X from the corner of his eye. The one bright spot in this whole thing was that he was seeing the blue Hunter up close.

He was very impressed. That trim, compact, short body... the innocent face, innocent eyes. There was an edge of knowledge, experience, but still that childlike innocence underneath. Zest found that very, very attractive.

In truth, Zest had a slightly odd set of preferences. He liked all different types of ladies, although his favorite was very skinny, but muscled, with long brown hair... like Angel. But any fine woman could turn his head.

With other men, he was far more selective, probably because he wasn't drawn to them as deeply. But his favored "type" in men was shorter than himself, but with the same kind of trim build as X... brunette, usually, with innocent eyes. It rarely happened that he met someone who fulfilled all those qualities, but when he did, it caught his attention. Usually only as long as the person was in sight, but now, he could study X up close... and X was exactly...

Vosk banged a hand against the table, his own temper fraying. "What are you hiding? That bank account we were given closed as soon as the payment was deposited to it. Abigail McCoy is completely beyond reach, and we have NO confirmation of your story. What are you hiding?" He demanded with a snarl. Zest drew in a deep breath.

"It's none of your god damned beeswax what I'm hiding!" He snarled right back, and X stepped in.

"You have to understand, Zest. Your level of skill just isn't normal, and one of the ways you could have learned it is from the Mavericks. We need to make sure that's not it." He said soothingly, and Zest subsided a bit.

"Besides Maverick activity, what else is there to hide?" Zero suddenly asked, eyeing Zest like he really wanted a second crack at the rookie. Zest gifted him with a sardonic grin.

"You want that categorically or alphabetically?" Zest lifted a hand, and began to tick them off. "Arson, burglary, assassination, grand larceny, shoplifting, vandalism..."

"Wh... what?" X blinked several times, Vosk looked startled, and Zero was suddenly interested. Zest shrugged, a bit uncomfortable.

"My... references wouldn't want to talk to you. This place is kinda official." Zest shrugged again. "They wouldn't want to have anything to do with someone who might report them to the police." X blinked again, and Vosk looked thoughtful.

"If we promised them complete anonymity, do you think your references would be willing to talk with us?" He asked, and Zest thought about it for a moment.

"It's... possible... but you should know that oathbreakers usually don't live long." That made Zero laugh... until Zest shot him a gaze that was deadly serious. "I mean it. That's really important." X looked a little nauseated, and Vosk thoughtful. Zest had basically told them his "references" had killed, and would kill again, if they felt threatened.

"Well, I can swear that we will not give information to the police. We deal with Mavericks, nothing else. Will you try?" Vosk asked, and Zest finally nodded.

"Yeah, I'll contact them." And see what kind of response he got...

* * *

The response came in an e-mail the next day, and Zest went to tell X and Zero immediately.

"Someone's coming tomorrow." He explained, adjusting his ponytail. "I don't know who it is, or how they'll get in, but they're coming."

"Great." Zero said sarcastically. "Do they expect us to just hang around all day, waiting for them? We do have work, you know." Zest frowned, and shook his head.

"Just do what you usually do, I'm sure they'll introduce themselves when you're both here..." Zest felt a bit exasperated, giving Zero an irritated glance. "They're doing a lot just coming here."

"We feel privileged."

"Zero, stop..." X cut in, trying to diffuse the argument. "Thank you, Zest. Zero, we can take one day off without hurting anything. Besides, you can try out those new simulations." That thought improved Zero's mood immediately. It would be a way to play without actually taking a real day off, since it was technically important business.

"Yeah, that should be good." Zero mused, then suddenly eyed Zest. "You can join us, kid. I want to see if you're as good as they say." Zest blinked, then grinned.

"Gladly, sir!" That would be more amusing than the usual training...

* * *

Zest rotated his arm, wincing at the pain in the joint. Zero had almost jerked it off during the simulation... apparently, he was still carrying something of a grudge. "Ow." Zest lifted it up, testing the feeling, the strength. "Ahh, minor."

"You don't need repairs? Good." X said, sounding distracted. "Zest, when are they going to be here? It's four o'clock already." Zest could only shrug.

"I don't know, X, but a lot of them are nocturnal..." In fact, most of them were mainly nocturnal. Zero raised an eyebrow at his purple copy.

"I hope they won't come at midnight. I need my beauty sleep." He stretched, deliberately making his golden mane ripple. Zest couldn't help but laugh.

"But what do they think we are, rookies who have all the free time in the world?" X fretted, and Zest frowned, opening his mouth...

But he was interrupted by a soft voice behind him.

"Actually, I would put all three of you down as extremely unobservant fools." Both the Hunters stared at the janitor standing behind Zest, an average looking man, his chin propped on the handle of his broom. Why would a _janitor_ say something like that to them?

Unless...

Zest turned around slowly, his expression one of... wonder. "...Dad?" X and Zero blinked, trading a glance. This was Zest's... father?

"But of course." He took off the cap, revealing thinning, fine blond hair, and crisp blue eyes. "And you've walked past me three times in the last hour. Very poor, Zest." He spared a glance at X and Zero. "They at least have an excuse, since a human infiltrator in Maverick Hunter Headquarters is an almost ridiculous notion... what human would betray them? But you, Zest, have no excuse at all."

"Unh... sorry dad." Zest looked slightly embarrassed, glancing at X and Zero. "This is my father, Jason McCoy."

"Pleased to meet you," X said, shaking his hand. "So, what can you tell us about Zest?" Jason McCoy looked thoughtful, then glanced slowly at Zest. Zest tensed… they had decided, via e-mail, that it was time for the Hunters to know the truth since they already suspected. There would be too many chances for them to find out from the Mavericks for it to be hidden forever.

"He's a Maverick made copy of Zero." X and Zero both tensed in shock, and Zest winced at the straight, bald-faced declaration. Trust his dad not to sugar coat it. But then his father smiled thinly. "He was sent on a basic mission to cause havoc, and interrupted a dance at my daughter's high school. Angel attempted to seduce him on the dance floor, and while he was distracted, my son, Mort, hit him from behind with a taser."

"A taser?" Zero scoffed. "What could that do to a Reploid?" Jason smiled again, but his eyes were cold.

"It's all in location. Zest, turn around." Zest obediently did so, and his father moved his ponytail aside to reveal the circular dataport hidden behind it. "A very vulnerable point to an electrical shock. He was lucky he survived… and it completely scrambled his programming and memory." He dropped Zests' ponytail, and the young Reploid turned back around, grinning. "After that, my children brought him home. After we found he was uninfected and had no memory, we kept him."

"Ah, I see… then he did learn to fight like that from the Mavericks," X started, looking troubled, then blinked as Jason smiled and Zest grinned. They were both very amused about something. "What's funny?"

"Heh, the Mavericks didn't teach me this!" Zest said with a laugh. "I totally stank back then! No, I learned all this from practicing with the family."

"You learned how to fight like that from humans?" Zero sounded very, very skeptical. Humans could be useful to the Maverick Hunters. A few had the reflexes and skills necessary to make their way in the 0'th and X units, but most had to settle for heavy weapons and defensive placements. Which was fine, really. The Hunters needed people for that. Still, it was amazing that humans could have taught Zest so much. Jason just smiled, and handed X a datachip.

"If you doubt, watch that," he said. "So, is this sufficient assurance? Zest has lived with our family for three years without incident." X and Zero looked at each other, and were about to speak when…

Vosk spoke from behind them, making everyone except Jason jump. They hadn't heard him enter the room. "No. I want a detailed list of everything you've taught him. It's idiotic to keep him in the rookie classes and I don't have time to figure out what he doesn't know." Zest shook his head with a grin as Jason nodded.

"Very well. Here's what he can do," and Jason began listing a skill set that would have given Zest pride of place in the penitentiary. Zest wasn't in the least bit embarrassed. He'd worked very hard to master all the skills. When Jason was finally done, Vosk nodded.

"That pretty much covers everything he needs as a Hunter, although perhaps some extra work in team tactics would be good." Zest's education had included some of that, working on simulators with his family, but even then the teams had been very small.

"Vosk," X finally broke in. "We can't just make him a Hunter! He's still a rookie." Vosk waved that away.

"I wasn't going to suggest that. No, I'll make him a teaching assistant. We can always use a bit of help. How does that sound, Zest?" Zest blinked, then grinned.

"Sounds great, sir!" He said cheerfully as his father nodded. He'd be able to do this easily, and it would be a lot more enjoyable than basic training in things he already knew.


	3. Chapter 3

Zest walked towards the training room, a grin on his face and his backpack slung over one shoulder. When he got into the training room, maybe half the rookies were there, getting warmed up. Zest waved to Chip, who bounced over with a happy smile.

"Zest! Where have you been? I was so worried they'd cut you!" Zest grinned, clasping Chip's arm.

"Cut me? Hardly! The class would wither and die without my glory," he joked, making Chip laugh. "No, they were trying to figure out what to do with me. Would you believe they made me an assistant trainer?"

"Really?" Chips' eyes were wide. "I've never heard of that before!" Then he spotted the backpack. "Oh, you brought your guns?"

"Uh huh." Zest suddenly put a couple fingers to his mouth, and whistled piercingly. The other rookies turned towards them, startled. "Okay, listen up! I'm your new assistant trainer! And since you monkey's are all trigger happy, and I promised… here's my gun collection!" Zest opened the backpack, and started pulling out some stupendous hardware. Eager rookies were soon clustering around him.

"The Nova Starduster!" Chip held the weapon with an expression of awe on his face, and Zest grinned. The weapon was worth some awe. His backpack was huge, but the Maverick weapon had barely fit. It was a sleek grey, with a barrel that shone blue under twirled steel. It was an energy weapon that fired a variable pulse, and had a few really interesting specialty settings. Zest particularly liked the "fireworks" setting, which could be counted on to liven up any party. He privately suspected that setting was the real reason the weapon was so popular among the Mavericks and sought after on the black market. And why it was so rare. The frivolousness did not appeal to Sigma.

The other weapons weren't nearly as impressive, but maybe more useful. The TP-340 and XK-594 were pistols, one laser and the other projectile. They could easily be strapped to his waist, and the TP was perfectly silent when it fired. Ideal for assassinations. The Zeus-68 was a particularly nasty, electrical based weapon. It was a spectacularly ugly gun, but Zest knew from experience that being at the wrong end of it was painful.

"If one of them hurts another, you will be responsible." Zest turned at the cold tone, and saw Phase standing behind him. He raised his hands defensively, but with a grin.

"No way, sir! If they beat each other over the head with 'em, it's not my fault!" Then he sobered, speaking more seriously. "I unloaded all of them, then took them down to the firing range to be sure." Some of the weapons jacked a round into the barrel automatically, and the Starduster was notorious for keeping a charge even after the powerplant had been removed. Zest had taken care of that by firing each one off before he'd brought it to the rookie class.

"Hmm." Phase watched tolerantly as the rookies had their fun, then called the class to order. The rookies settled down slowly. Then the lesson started.

Zest quickly found that teaching wasn't nearly as much fun when you couldn't have an 'error type 3'. He was obligated to stay and help even when he was experiencing the need to hang someone upside down from the ceiling. But even then…

"Mordred, have you ever seen inspirational posters?" Zest said conversationally after his second attempt to get a slightly scatter-brained rookie to listen to him and follow directions. The boy looked startled, but nodded. "My dad has one of the Titanic sinking. The title is, 'Failure: Your only purpose in life may be to serve as a warning to others.' You want to pay attention, or should I give everyone else a graphic example of how true that is?" There were laughs from the rookies close enough to hear. The boy blushed as red as his hair, but finally started paying attention to Zest and not a nearby female rookie.

In the main, though, Zest had fun with it. Teaching was certainly more entertaining than being taught things he already knew!

"Zest!" Phase called to him. "Go get the practice armor, and take one of the others with you." Zest trotted away cheerfully. Vosk had thoroughly explained his job as a teaching assistant, and part of it was being a gofer for the main instructor.

"Chip!" He called to his friend, who glanced over and nearly got his head taken off by the rookie he was fencing with. "Break it off and come with me." Chip looked puzzled, but obediently left his training to follow Zest. "We're getting out the practice armor." Zest grinned. "Too much for just me to carry." There were dollies in the equipment room, so he and Chip would probably be able to handle it.

"Oh, okay!" As they were loading the armor onto the dollies, Chip asked, "What's this for, Zest?" They all had their own armor, so it was a little puzzling.

"Oh, this stuff registers laser hits and logs them with the computers. You'll be going through an obstacle course with simulated enemies, to see how often they hit you… a lot like the first tests." Zest had gone through several obstacle courses during the tests to become a Hunter. But Chip looked puzzled.

"I don't remember a test like that." Zest blinked, then grinned. He had thought the tests had gone on too long… and he knew the three he'd faced up against at the end hadn't been rookies. He wasn't stupid, and he'd already gotten a grip on how good the real rookies were.

"Oh, yeah… they must have raised the difficulty for me." Chip looked slightly awed.

"Zest, how good ARE you?" He asked, a little subdued, and Zest blinked.

"I'm not sure, exactly." Privately, he suspected he was almost as good as Zero. Of the family, only his dad had been able to defeat him on a regular basis… and that was usually by being the sneakiest bastard who ever lived, not straight out fighting. Zest doubted he'd ever meet anyone that… creatively malignant in his duties as a Hunter. "Good enough that they think I shouldn't be a rookie, but I'm not ready to be a Hunter. So now I'm helping out." Zest chuckled. "And I'm going to be teaching a few classes."

"Really?" Chip blinked. "Which ones?" Zest shook his head.

"Ah, that would be telling." Phase spotted them then, and motioned them over. Soon, he was distributing the armor.

Zest had been right. They were being put through an obstacle course, although a very basic one. Zest watched idly, making mental notes on each rookie. Chip came through well, and Zest gave him a grin and a thumbs up. Chip smiled and waved back.

"Zest, you go through next." Zest was jarred by Phase's cold voice, and blinked at him. This course was extraordinarily basic. Why would Phase want him to…?

"Uh, yes, sir." Zest said belatedly, noticing the severe look Phase was giving him. The other rookies were all finished and were complaining about the difficulty of the exercise. Zest took his place… and noticed the simulation shifting around, and Phase instructing the rookies to watch.

_Oh, that's it!_ Zest grinned wickedly. Phase had heard the bitching, too, and was giving them all a lesson about what they would eventually be expected to do.

As soon as the simulation started, Zest burst into action. The simulation was challenging, but not as difficult as some other ones he'd done. But when he finished, he could hear the awed murmurs… and Phase' voice.

"That wasn't as difficult as the simulations you'll eventually be doing. If you don't think you can, stop now." There was utter silence from the rookies. Some looked apprehensive, but with Zest's example in front of them, none were going to quit. "Class dismissed." Zest checked his internal chronometer, and nodded. It was almost lunch time.

"Hey, Kikana? Help me out here?" Zest called to the solemn faced rookie, who nodded and came over to help carry the armor back to the storage room. Zest didn't want to impose on Chip all the time… but that turned out to be pointless, as Chip cheerfully pitched in without being asked. Zest grinned at him. "Thanks, Chip."

"No problem!" Chip grinned back, and soon the three of them were walking toward the mess hall.

"Hey, Kikana? What have the medics said about your arm?" Zest asked the younger rookie, who actually smiled, faintly.

"They think they can fix it. And even if they can't, they can just replace it." Kikana sighed, touching that arm with his right hand. "It'll be good to have the strength back." Zest nodded, and looked up at the menu. There were typically three different choices of main dish in the cafeteria.

"Alright, beef stew!" Zest grinned, taking a tray. He'd tried the stew before, and really liked it. It was full of very tender beef, and savory with carrots and potatoes. Chip shook his head, and ordered the vegetarian spaghetti instead. Zest tilted his head, glancing over at him. "You're a vegetarian?" He hadn't really noticed before, but yesterday's special had been macaroni and cheese. Chip blushed.

"Um, yes. I just like it better. I know that's a bit weird…"

"Hey, not at all! One of my sisters is a vegan and she won't wear leather." Zest took a bun and some olives. He had read a book about ancient Greece, a long time ago, and taken away the idea of eating them together. "Of course, that really doesn't square with her being an assassin, but girls don't have to be consistent. Has something to do with hormones."

"Hey!" Zest grinned as a roll bounced off his helmet, and waved at some of the girls, who laughed and threw a few more rolls. He caught one, and took a bite out of it.

They took a seat at the rookies' table, and for a while there was very little conversation. The earlier heavy activity had used up energy, and eating was the simplest way to fix that.

"So, what class are you going to be teaching us?" Chip asked brightly, and Zest shrugged as most of the rookies in earshot looked over.

"Oh, a bit of this, a bit of that." Glancing around, he realized he'd have to be more precise or risk getting hounded for days… so he grinned. "Like hot wiring cars."

"Why would they want us to know that?" Kikana said, taken aback. That wasn't usually on the Hunter skill list.

"'Cause a lot of Hunters have had to run to battles, when the teleporter jamming goes up. And when there were lots of nifty little civilian hoverbikes around, but they couldn't use 'em." Zest smiled, remembering Zero's slightly bitching commentary on the topic, when X objected to teaching the Hunters that particular skill. Zero had come up with so many examples, X had finally given up in disgust. "But you guys aren't going to learn it until you're about ready to graduate. X's afraid you'll go embark on a life of crime." There were laughs up and down the table. "So I'm just teaching the full-fledged Hunters right now."

"It's hard to imagine YOU teaching real Hunters anything." Gilgamesh said contemptuously. Zest's eyes hardened as he looked at the other rookie. Gilgamesh returned the look with active hostility.

Chalene, a tiny female rookie in white armor with pink accents, broke the standoff. She had just barely scraped by on the performance tests, but she was learning pretty rapidly… and was a natural peacekeeper. "So, Zest? If you're the teaching assistant, can you tell us what we're going to be doing tomorrow?"

"Oh sure." Zest turned to Chalene, more than willing to abandon the confrontation. Gilgamesh had no sense of humor, so he didn't appreciate Zest at all… and Zest was willing to bet the grey rookie was festering with envy over his accomplishments. That Vosk had made Zest a teaching assistant and not Gilgamesh was an intolerable insult, from the other rookies' perspective. If this had been in the family, Zest would have challenged Gilgamesh to a fistfight out behind the house and beat him into a bloody pulp. But Hunters weren't supposed to do that to each other, so Zest simply tried to avoid having much to do with the poisonous rookie, and privately hoped they wouldn't get put in the same unit. "You're going to be doing some small unit exercises. I'll be joining in on that… the one area I don't have much practice with is group tactics, especially large groups. Most of my training was solo."

"Because no one would have you," Gilgamesh said sourly, and one of the others elbowed him in the side. The grey rookie growled and elbowed his friend back. Zest pretended not to hear, and just kept eating. But then he quietly whispered to Chip.

"If he doesn't stop being an asshole, I'm going to punch his lights out someday." Chip grinned, and whispered back, equally silent.

"I'll hold your coat and get his blood type for the medics." Zest chuckled.

"Thanks, I'd appreciate that." When his food was finished, Zest stood up. "Well, see you guys tomorrow… I have an appointment with those Hunters who want to learn about hot wiring cars." Zest grinned wickedly. He had said that only to rub salt in the wound, and Gilgamesh knew it.

As he walked away, he felt angry eyes on his back. That only added an arrogant spring to his step.

Zest could be seriously annoying, when he put his mind to it.

* * *

The next day, Zest was teamed with Mordred, Chalene and a simp of a rookie named Taj. The kid was looking at him adoringly, which only made things more difficult, since Zest really wanted to kick his ass. They had done really badly on the team simulation, and it hadn't been Zest's fault. In fact, he and Chalene had 'survived' it, due almost solely to his trying to salvage the situation. Taj had gotten his instructions wrong and had been nailed in the first five minutes. Mordred had panicked at that point, realizing… correctly… that his flank was now uncovered and he was probably toast. That had only made the situation worse. Zest had gone solo at that point, pretty much, and Chalene had abandoned her spot and concentrated on guarding his back. They had completed the exercise successfully.

It was still an appalling performance. Zest knew that their success wouldn't cut much ice… Pulse already knew he could kick ass. The idea was to see if he could work well with others. The screw-ups hadn't really been his fault, but still…

Zest took some small comfort in the fact that most of the teams were doing just as bad, if not worse. Pulse had obviously worked hard on whom to put with whom. Chip, Gilgamesh and himself were the most skillful of the rookies, and they'd each been put in separate teams with some rookies who were pretty unsteady. Chip was currently coping with the way one of his flankers had drifted out of position, and Gilgamesh was even worse, screwing up himself by going ahead too quickly.

Zest waited patiently for each team to go, snickering at a few really spectacular mistakes. It would have been even funnier if his own team hadn't gotten their score on the suck-o-meter.

When everyone was done, Pulse gave them his critique. Zest almost winced when he started with his squad.

"Taj, that was one of the worst botches I've ever seen." Pulse said severely, and Zest silently thanked a benign deity for that. He hadn't wanted to give Taj hell himself. It was better coming from a clear authority figure than a peer. "The plan you were supposed to use was simple, which was good-" Zest nodded to himself. Each team had been required to create a plan and submit it to Pulse before beginning the exercise. Since they weren't given a lot of information, Zest had decided that less was more and had created a very simple plan of attack. He'd noticed that a lot of the groups had tried to get too complex. "But simple or not, a plan is useless if you can't follow minimal instructions." Taj seemed to wilt under the criticism, staring at the floor. "Mordred, you were almost as bad. Panicking is never a useful reaction. Chalene, your reaction to the problem was excellent. Closing in on Zest was precisely the right thing to do. Zest… we both know that you did well at making this into a solo mission on the spot, but that proves nothing." Pulse stared at Zest, his eyes hard and challenging. "Next time, I want to see you working with a team." Zest's eyes narrowed, annoyed, but he made no comment. It hadn't been his fault, and Pulse knew it, but saying it wouldn't cut any ice.

After Pulse finished his critiques, he reshuffled the groupings. This time, Zest found himself with a superior team. Chip, Kikana and Mordred were following him this time. Zest was fairly sure he could count on Mordred to at least follow instructions, even if he didn't react to surprise well, and Kikana was steady. Chip was outright good. Zest glanced over the new data they were being given, and quickly formulated a plan. Again, it was a very basic plan, although Chip had a few enhancements.

"If I go there, I can cut off that cannon…" Chip lined a new path for himself, and Zest nodded, making the change.

"Okay, I think that's good. What do you guys think?" There were murmurs of agreement from Kikana and Mordred. Mordred was wearing a look of intense concentration as he committed his part of the plan to memory. Zest thought it was a little pathetic that he needed to try so hard for something so simple, but he appreciated that Mordred was trying. Zest submitted the plan to Phase, then settled in to wait.

Eventually, their turn came, and this time things went well. Zest was careful to stay aware of where his teammates were and what they were doing. It wasn't easy and took his mind off his own task, but if he was going to keep the ball rolling, he had to be able to do it.

"Alright, great work guys!" Zest grinned as they finished. He was sure Phase would have nothing negative to say about what they had done this time.

As it turned out, he was right. Soon, the class was dismissed, and Zest and Chip were walking back to their room. They were doing some target practice later, and Zest needed his guns for it. Unlike the original Zero, he wasn't equipped with an arm cannon. It was an open question as to why the Mavericks had left that out.

Someone gripping his hair abruptly pulled Zest to a stop. Zest looked back, annoyed… his scalp wasn't sensitive, so hair grabbing didn't hurt, but it was still offensive. He blinked as he saw a young Hunter grinning at him, and tilted his head.

"You're Axl, right?" Zest asked tentatively. He remembered Axl from several news reports, and the hair and armor was pretty individual.

"That's me!" Axl said cheerfully, releasing his hair. "I missed the class on hot wiring, I was busy killing a Maverick who had taken over a passenger liner, so I was wondering if you did make up sessions?" Zest resisted an urge to turn that into a dirty remark, and grinned.

"Sure, if you're willing to wait until after the target practice. If I'm not there, Vosk'll hang me from the ceiling by my testicles." As a teaching assistant, Zest didn't have even the limited freedom other rookies did to skip classes. Axl blinked, startled, then grinned again.

"Ha, I can so picture him doing that! Okay, after supper then?"

"Sure thing." Zest gave Axl a final parting smile, then started walking again with Chip. And was startled as Chip whispered in his ear.

"He's watching you."

"Eh?" Zest glanced back, and accidentally met Axl's eyes. The Hunter flushed bright red, then dashed away. "Huh!" Chip snickered, amused by the interplay. "I hope he doesn't have a crush. Childish, spiky redheads are not my type." Chip was silent for a moment.

"Are blondes your type?" Zest blinked at Chip. Under his helmet, his friend had blonde hair.

"Are you hitting on me?" Zest asked in an enquiring tone. Chip blushed, then shook his head.

"No, no! I was just curious. I thought you liked girls?"

"Oh, that. I'm bisexual. Actually, I like brunettes… and it might be a fool's mission, but I have one in mind right now." Zest grinned. "And not a girl." Chip looked at him wide-eyed.

"Really? Who?" He asked, and Zest laughed.

"Oh, someone whose name is also a letter of the alphabet." That made Chip gasp. There was only one person that was true of.

"Really? Seriously? You like Commander X?"

"Yep," Zest said. "But I don't know if he'll like me." He had his doubts. He was quite sure Zero and X were not lovers, but from what he had picked up around the HQ, X might still be a virgin. If so, he'd been one for a long time, voluntarily. That didn't look good for his chances. "I want to get to know him better, too."

"Well, that'll have to wait until we become full Hunters," Chip said with a sigh. "I tried to get to know this one girl, and she laughed at me." Zest nodded sympathetically. In the Hunters, there was a huge gap between rookies and real Hunters. Not many of the real Hunters were even willing to talk to them, let alone date them. Zest was a slight exception, since he was also teaching classes for the Hunters and had already proven he could beat them in combat. Even so, he was a grudging exception. And while X didn't look at things that way, he was usually busy with paperwork and unit business. Zest would have to be a full Hunter before he could annoy X as casually as Zero.

As Zest was gathering up his weapons, something occurred to Chip, and he grinned wickedly. "You know, Zest, if you like brunettes I saw Gilgamesh and he- ACK!" A pillow had caught Chip in the face.

"Ack, pttth! Don't you dare say that ever again!" Chip laughed, grabbing the pillow and clubbing Zest with it. "Ow, hey!" Zest laughed, and grabbed another pillow to defend himself.

Fortunately, the pillows could take the abuse, but someone banged on their door and told them to knock it off. Zest stopped with a grin… then blinked as he checked the time.

"Buggering hell, Chip, we're going to be late. Come on!" He grabbed his backpack and dashed out the door.

Pulse did not appreciate tardiness.

* * *

After class and supper, Zest found himself teaching a private class of two.

He hadn't expected Chip to weasel his way in, but the young rookie had wanted to come along. Zest had resisted a little while, but finally given in. Vosk hadn't actually ordered him NOT to teach his friends, and as long as it was only Chip, it would probably be okay. Zest did force Chip to take an oath of silence. If the other rookies heard he was teaching Chip early, they'd be all over him, and he couldn't teach them all early or X would be pissed. Besides, X was probably right about them doing something stupid.

Zest leaned over Axl, inspecting his work. Axl shivered faintly, unconsciously, and Zest smiled in amusement. He'd seen Axl talking to Zero, before he came to the lesson, and he was sure Axl had a crush on Zero and this was just transference. Probably because Axl sensed, on some level, that Zest might be receptive where Zero wouldn't. Zero obviously looked at Axl as just a friend.

"Not bad at all. Let's try and start it." Axl tried, then beamed as the hoverbike went on smoothly. "Excellent! But you're way too slow for a successful bike thief. Want to try and get your speed up?" For Hunters, that might be as necessary as it was for real thieves. The battlefield did not wait. Neither did Maverick snipers.

"Okay!" Zest expertly pulled apart the wires for him, fixing the motorbike back to its original state. Then he quickly checked Chip's work.

"You don't have that clamped right…" Zest showed Chip where he was going wrong, then blinked as he heard the roar of an engine behind him. Glancing back, he saw Axl sitting on the hoverbike, grinning. "Hey, not shabby!"

"Thanks!" Axl said cheerfully. "Hey, would you two like to come with me to a party? We're having one at Cowboy's." Zest tilted his head, slightly startled. He hadn't heard anything about a party. But they had the next day off, so really, why not?

"Sure, Axl. Chip? You up for it?" He glanced over at Chip, then smiled… Chip was utterly focused on making his hoverbike move. The engine finally turned over, and Chip smiled in relief.

"Huh? Oh! Sounds good, Zest." Chip was more than willing when Zest repeated the question. "Right now?"

"Sure, why wait?" Zest put the bikes back together… he hadn't bothered to teach them how to do that, but the base mechanics would be pissed if he just left them like this… then went to requisition one of his own. Soon, they were out the door with Axl in the lead. Zest and Chip were both new to the town, and didn't know the locations of the bars.

Once they got to the party, Zest realized he and Chip might be in trouble. Particularly Chip. Zest was hard to intimidate, but his green and yellow armored friend was looking a bit goggle-eyed. Zest elbowed him gently in the ribs.

"Don't stare," he murmured. "Next time, when Axl invites us somewhere, we have to remember to ask who's putting on the party."

This was a pretty elite party. Only the 0'th and X units, actually, along with the other higher ups at Hunter HQ. Even Signas was there, quietly drinking and conversing with X. Zest eyed the blue hunter covertly, impressed all over again.

But Axl was looking back at them inquiringly, clueless about any possible problem. Zest stepped forward confidently, smiling. He'd figured out a long time ago that when you weren't certain of your welcome, it was best to brazen things out. If you looked confident enough, no one would question you.

It pretty much worked. Zero spotted Axl and made a bee line for him, grinning.

"Axl! I thought you weren't coming." Zero embraced Axl with a grin, then tilted his head as he noticed Zest and Chip. "Hey, what're the copy and the cookie doing here?" Chip blushed brightly and Zest lifted an eyebrow.

"Oh, they were showing me how to hot wire a hoverbike, so I asked if they wanted to come! Is that okay?" Axl smiled, and Zero shrugged good-naturedly.

"Sure, why not? The more the merrier. Here, try this stuff." Zero snagged a couple of glasses of something that was bright blue and fizzling. Chip eyed it with alarm, as Zest confidently took a drink.

"What is it…?" Chip took a cautious sip, and almost choked. Zest took a sip, and rolled it in his mouth, trying to identify all the ingredients.

"Hmm… rum, peppermint schnapps, vodka maybe. Other than that, I'm not sure." Zest said, swallowing his drink.

"Pretty good. The rest of it is some fizzy stuff, only the bartender knows exactly what." Zero tossed back his own glass, impressing Chip all over again. The drinks were pretty strong. Zest tilted his head, listening as a song started to play. Despite the name of the club, the music was pop and electric.

Zest started mingling. Before long, he'd managed to wash up beside X, apparently completely by coincidence.

"Hello sir." Zest said brightly, and X looked over at him, startled.

"Zest? What are you doing here?" X asked. He wasn't offended, but he knew none of the rookies had been invited. Zest glanced around, looking for a particular hairstyle, and spotted Axl chatting with Chip.

"Oh, Axl invited us." Zest said with a wave towards him and Chip. X's smile turned from puzzled to warm.

"That's wonderful. Are you friends?" Zest blinked, a little taken aback. He wasn't expecting X to be so pleased. Was there some reason he wanted them to be Axl's friends?

"We only met this morning," he said cautiously. "But he seems okay."

"Ah." X watched Axl with a mix of exasperation and affection, then looked at Zest. "He was never a rookie, you know. He's a lot like you… too good to be one, and because of the circumstances, we couldn't make him an assistant trainer either. And what with once being part of Red Alert, well… he doesn't have that many friends." Zest nodded. He could understand that. Red Alert had run several covert missions against the Hunters before Axl defected, so it was possible Axl had killed a few. Not likely, but apparently the other Hunters were still chilly. It explained why he would want to make friends with rookies.

"Well, he's cool." Zest suddenly grinned, impishly. "I'm sure we can think of some things to do!" Someone who knew Zest well would be wondering exactly what he had in mind. X just accepted that with a smile. "So, how's the paperwork coming?"

X and Zest chatted for quite some time, Zest doing his level best to charm the blue hunter. X didn't really notice… until Zest got him talking about how he imagined things would be after Sigma was finally defeated.

"…And revitalize the parks," X said, longing in his voice. "I've always had a dream about playing in a park…" X glanced over at Zest, and blinked, realizing that Zest wasn't listening to him. Or rather, not listening to his words… Zest was watching him intently, his blue eyes warm.

"Keep going, please." Zest said quietly, but X found he was unable to, blushing. And the strangest part was how that direct, blue gaze made him feel… X couldn't untangle all his emotions. Embarrassment, self-consciousness… interest?

Zero stumbled up to them, grinning, and the moment was broken. "Hey, are you guys going to stand here all night? Join the dancing!"

"You know I don't dance, Zero," X said, grateful for the interruption. "But maybe Zest would like to go."

"Hm, maybe I would." Zest said with a twinkle in his eye, and X started as Zest touched his hand. "See you later, X." X watched him go, uncertain… but strangely conscious of Zest's confident stride.

He wasn't sure if he should hope to see Zest later, or not.


	4. Chapter 4

A week later.

"I can't believe we did this," Axl said, gazing up at the wall in awe. "Do you think maybe they'll keep it?"

"This one's not pornographic, so maybe." Zest looked over his handiwork, then sneezed. "Gah… paint fumes. Damn near lethal paint fumes. Woo!" He ran a hand through his hair, accidentally spiking it with green.

"I can't believe you made the first one," Chip said, amazed. "This is just incredible!" Zest grinned, proud of what he had accomplished.

With Axl's and Chip's help, he'd repainted the wall. This time, though, the mural wasn't obscene… it was a group of Hunters dashing through a war zone, thrusters activated and weapons at the ready. Zero and X were both in it, Zero leading the way into the danger. And down in the corner was Zest's message… "Paint shall never prevail. Welcome to the second edition of this wall!" Axl had broken down giggling when he realized what Zest was writing there.

"The mad graffiti artist strikes again," Axl said with a grin. "But you better get cleaned up before someone sees us!" Axl laughed, pulling Zest towards the HQ. They had waited until the wee hours of the morning to do their mischief, so not many people would be about… and Chip was taking point, to make sure the halls were empty before Zest started down them. He had to get to the shower without incident, or they would be busted. Zest went willingly, if a little unsteadily. The paint fumes really had been enough to make him high.

"So, how did you like that?" Zest said with a wild grin. Axl grinned back, and Chip laughed softly as he checked to see if a hallway was empty.

"It was totally crazy and if X finds out it was us, we're toast. But it was still great." Axl said. "You guys are the best friends ever." Zest clapped the redheaded Hunter on the back, then grinned as they finally reached their room. Inside, he'd be able to spend the next several hours getting all the paint off.

"And you're a great sport, Axl. We couldn't have done it without you." That wasn't technically true, but it was close. Axl's hovering ability had made some of the more difficult parts a lot easier than they had been last time, even if Axl couldn't keep hovering indefinitely. Axl beamed at the compliment.

"What about me?" Chip protested, a little hurt, and Zest gave him a grin.

"Oh, we couldn't have done it without you either! How about I give you a great big hug" Chip stepped back with a mock expression of horror, fending off Zest easily.

"Not covered in paint! Yeeuch, wash first!" Zest laughed, and casually stripped off his clothes before he stepped into the shower. Axl blushed brightly, accidentally seeing more than he had planned on.

"Uh, well, I better get to sleep. See you guys later!"

"Later, Axl!" Chip waved with a smile as Axl dashed out the door, then he carefully picked up Zests' clothes, and used the Starduster to incinerate them. One of its settings had a disintegration effect on weak materials, so when he was done, there was no evidence left. They had decided that laundering the clothes would be a bit too dangerous, and Zest had some ratty things he could easily sacrifice.

It had been a wonderful adventure.

* * *

"Damn, damn damn!" X fumed, looking up at the devastation that had been the beautiful, pristine white wall of Hunter HQ. "I can't believe this!"

"At least the subject matter isn't as offensive." Vosk said philosophically, gazing up at the mural. "Actually, it's rather flattering. The portrayal of you is particularly good." It appeared whoever had painted the wall had devoted the lions share of their attention to X… or at least, had a very good grip on his character. For all the violence of the captured moment, X seemed solemn and a little sad as he attacked the Mavericks.

"What about me?" Zero grinned, delighted. "I'm kicking ass! X, tell me we can keep this one." There had been no question about keeping the last one, no matter how charming it had been. Little children had been asking their mothers about it and elderly folk had been offended. Well, mostly. A few old men had been drooling.

This one, though, was an enthusiastic but realistic portrayal of Zero, X, Axl and Vosk. X glowered up at it… then suddenly frowned, a thought suddenly occurring to him.

"Vosk is in it, but he's not well known." X said slowly. "I mean, recruit commander is very important in the HQ, but it never makes the news. Sorry Vosk." He apologized to the other commander, who waved it away and regarded the mural thoughtfully.

"You're suggesting this was painted by a recruit." Vosk considered that. "Possible, but the first one was painted during the previous class. It could be the work of a Hunter."

"One of the hoodlums from the 0'th squad." X muttered, but Zero only grinned and shook his head, not at all offended.

"If any of them had artistic talent like this, I'd already know about it, X. Remember when we decorated the lobby?"

"I'm trying to forget. Alright, not the 0'th. That leaves the recruits." X sighed. "And the security cameras picked up nothing!"

"They didn't?" Vosk questioned, startled. "Why not?" That was very strange. The cameras had been put in specifically to deal with this issue.

"Someone disabled them." X said grimly. "With a virus over the network. It was sneaky… they recorded blank tape for several hours."

"A rookie with computer skills?" Zero mused. "Do we have any rookies with skills like that?" Vosk was silent for a moment, running all the rookies through his mind. Then he shook his head.

"Not that I'm aware of." Vosk had no suspicions of the truth, since Zest was honestly not capable of creating the virus. He did, however, have it on his portable USB drive. A gift from his sister, Angel, who was a creative virus writer.

Someone else, however, did know the truth.

"You guys are nuts," Gilgamesh said flatly from behind Zest and Chip. Chip started violently, and Zest turned around slowly to look at the grey rookie, his eyes narrowing. "If X finds out, you guys are dead."

"Finds out what?" Zest said innocently enough, even as his mind worked furiously. How did Gilgamesh know? Had he seen them at work?

"You know what." Gilgamesh snorted, and Zest scowled as Chip looked horrified.

"X doesn't know what people don't tell him…" The threat in Zest's tone was unmistakable, but Gilgamesh only sneered.

"I'm not a damn fink." And he walked away, his spine very straight. Zest and Chip both stared after him, stunned almost speechless.

"…Wow." Chip said wonderingly. "Who would have thought there was something to admire about him?" Zest abruptly grinned, as he remembered a past member of his family, Raphael McCoy. He hadn't made the comparison before, because circumstances had been different… he had been Raphael's junior, not a peer, and had always shown respect. Raphael had also died in an accident before Zest could become a peer, so Zest had never dealt with him on an adult level. But he'd been a cantankerous bastard, constantly pressing on others, especially other men, in an effort to be more dominant. There had been more than one fistfight out behind the shed with Raphael's siblings and cousins. He'd been a brute, a bastard, difficult to deal with… and still family, with the family sense of honor. Making that comparison, between Gilgamesh and Raphael, suddenly made Zest feel better. He might be a bastard and they might eventually have that fistfight for dominance, but Gilgamesh wouldn't shoot him in the back.

"Yeah, who would've thought?" Zest agreed, and turned to look up at the artwork again. "Hey, where's Axl? We need that camera." Just in case the Hunters painted it over again, Zest had decided to take some pictures right away. Lord knew they wouldn't be the only ones. Several other rookies and Hunters had already dug out the digital cameras, and a few were using their cell phones to spam the images to their friends.

And Gilgamesh was true to his word. No one ever found out who had created the latest mural, and to X's eternal annoyance, Zero's wishes prevailed and this mural stayed up. Some kids were caught trying to spraypaint a different wall, but they were only copycat imitators. The mad graffiti artist never returned.

Well, that was what the Hunters thought. In actuality, he never left.

Zest grinned as he watched the rookies doing a far more advanced simulation. It had been almost four months, and they had all improved dramatically. He thought Chip and Gilgamesh were ready to be put in a squad, although they would remain with the rookies for the next two months anyway. Mordred was developing a surprising knack for infiltration work, and Kikana was still steady as a rock. Chalene had stopped improving, and Zest suspected she was going to be tapped over to become a Navigator. A prestigious job in its own right, and she would do it well, with her knack for peacekeeping.

But in direct contrast to the progress of the rookies, Zest's progress with X had stalled out. The blue Hunter wasn't ignoring him, exactly. He was polite and kind and they had even gone out for coffee. But he was just too busy for serious dating. Zest frowned slightly. The Mavericks were really keeping the Hunters hopping these days.

Zest's turn at the simulation finally came, although Phase let him work several notches above everyone else except Chip and Gilgamesh. They were able to hold out on the highest simulations now, although neither was as energetically violent as Zest.

Zest was only halfway through the simulation when it abruptly shut down. A siren cut through the air, startling all the rookies as much as the end of Zest's run. They all listened… but the alert wasn't for them. The X squad and the 15'th were being called out. The 0'th squad and the 13'th were already on urgent missions. That left only the heavy weapons unit, a small mobile defense force and the rookies in Hunter HQ. Not an unusual situation, and with the entire heavy weapons unit in place, no one would attack. But less than ten minutes later, Vosk and Phase approached him.

"Zest," Vosk said shortly, his face calm but his eyes hard and cold. Phase was visibly angry and upset, which made Zest blink. He'd never seen that before. Phase was usually cool as a cucumber. "You will be leading your unit on your first mission." Behind him, Chip had been drinking from a water bottle, and went into a spasm of choking. The rest of the rookies stared at Vosk with googly eyes.

This was completely out of order and incorrect. They hadn't graduated, they weren't Hunters, and this wasn't a real unit, although people called it the rookie unit. Zest eyed Vosk, then nodded sharply. He was certain the recruit commander had a very good reason to ask this of them, and most of them were ready. "Tell me more, sir?"

Soon, Zest was being fully briefed. He waved Chip and Kikana close, ignoring Gilgamesh's fuming. He'd watched Gilgamesh as much as any other rookie, and his plans left a lot to be desired. Kikana had an eye for practical problems while Chip could be creatively nasty. Vosk let them hammer out a plan, then approved it.

It wasn't that much of a plan, though. The Mavericks had attacked from all sides, and despite the units splitting up, there just weren't enough Hunters to cover all the hot spots. X and Zero were both dealing with some tremendous problems, which left Zest and the rookies as the only fighting force left. Zest suddenly wondered if the Mavericks had done this deliberately. Were they trying to wipe out a rookie class? With all the savage fighting, it would be a severe blow to the Hunters and might affect their prestige. And it might effect recruitment.

Meeting Vosk's gaze, Zest realized that the recruit commander had made the same calculation. He was betting on Zest, betting on Chip, Gilgamesh, Kikana and even Mordred. Betting that they could kick the Mavericks a new arsehole, even if they were young and untried. Zest grinned ferally. His own presence had probably been the deciding factor, since he gave the rookies a champion.

"Sir, I think the main centre of the trouble is here." Zest outlined a specific area. "I suggest a small team, myself, Chip, and Gilgamesh head for the centre of this spot." That was where the Maverick General was sure to be. Gilgamesh looked startled, then unreadable. It wasn't the first time Zest had picked him for something important, although it grated on him that Zest was doing the picking. "Kikana and Chalene can lead two teams… Alpha for Kikana's, Beta for Chalene's, and start cleaning out the Mavericks here and here." Zest pointed out the locations. "And Chalene, you'll keep Arby with you at all times." Chalene blushed, but didn't dispute his order. Arby was a very fit, but mentally childish rookie. Perfect to protect Chalene as she smoothly issued orders. "Remember, both of you, stay back and coordinate." They'd both been in that role before, but Zest wanted to hammer it home. Neither one was an X or Zero, and if they hit the front line they could very well die, or lose control of their squad, which was just as bad. They would have to be the brains of the venture since… "I assume Navigations are all screwed up, sir?"

"Naturally." Vosk said sourly. "And I approve your suggestion, with one exception. Phase will be coming with your team." Zest nodded respectfully to their teacher, who nodded back. "He will be your second in command." Vosk wasn't leaving anything to chance. Even Zest could die. "Who will be the second in command for the Alpha and Beta squads?"

"Uh…" Zest quickly examined the remaining rookies. He'd used up the best leadership talent, but… "Tiddily for Alpha, Homer for Beta." They weren't the most creative of the rookies, but they were among the least likely to panic. Which was likely to be the reaction for a lot of people, suddenly thrust into leadership.

"Very well," Vosk said, stepping back and looking them all over with eyes that glistened faintly. "Try to come back alive."

* * *

_Kzzt__… we're almost… fzt… ere! _Zest mentally interpreted Chips excited message, blasting a Maverick with one of his guns. There was an obscenely loud explosion to the side, as Chip used the Starduster's maximum setting.

"We know," he muttered, dashing forward and slicing apart the resistance. Then he spoke more loudly. "Careful with the ammo, Chip!" Chip had five spare powerpacks for the Starduster, but the setting he had just used drained a good quarter of one. And once all the powerpacks were used up, the Starduster became a very fancy club.

_I..__ kzzt… goo…_ Zest decided to trust Chip, and concentrated on his own tasks. The Mavericks were getting harder, which was probably a good sign. They were nearing their target.

Phase lived up to his name, briefly blurring out and confusing the Mavericks before unleashing his own buster shots. Chip slung the Starduster over his back and unlimbered his laser whip, as several Mavericks got a bit too close. Fortunately, the Starduster came with a shoulder sling that made the move feasible.

"I would walk five hundred miles… and I would walk five hundred more… just to be the man who walked a thousand miles to fall down at your door…" Zest sang quietly to himself, so he wouldn't disturb the others. But moments like this really needed a soundtrack. Life really should come with a soundtrack…. well, with a mute button for the annoying bits.

Pushing away that brief moment of whimsy, Zest dashed out into the very centre of the area he had marked. This should be where-

And the ground collapsed under his feet. No… it SUCKED him under. Zest attempted to plunge his beam sabre into the edge of the ground entrance, but only lost the weapon as the suction refused to let go. He swore sulferously as he landed on hard metal.

"Well, well… the little copy of Zero." A terribly familiar voice came from the darkness, and Zest snarled as he saw brilliant red eyes glowing from the shadows. "Come to meet your maker?"

"You weren't my maker, Vile," Zest said sweetly. "And speaking of her, how is Morgan these days?" Vile's eyes flamed brighter at the mention of the Maverick scientist that had created him, and Zest grinned viciously. "I do hope she hasn't had a misfortune." Vile didn't reply, and Zest knew why. His adopted family had arranged a misfortune, at his request. Morgan wouldn't be making any more Reploid copies of Zero. Zest pulled out his guns, silently blessing his family for insisting he learn how to shoot as well as he used his beam sabre. "Stop hiding in the shadows, Vile. Let's do this."

"Yes." Bright light illuminated them both, and Zest dodged the fist of Vile's robot ride armor with another swearword.

"This is not fucking fair!" The armor gave Vile a tremendous advantage, and Zest had lost his sabre… but Vile only laughed coldly.

"I don't do fair." Zest dodged his next blow nimbly, and fired several shots into the armor. They seemed to do next to no damage, and the fist clipped him on the way back, sending him into the wall with stunning force.

_I have to be clever, clever… what can I do that's clever?_ Zest bounced back easily, and kept dodging and firing as he tried to think. _I have to get that armor off him. How can I get the armor off him? It'll take an explosion… yeah!_ He reloaded one of his guns on the fly, giving it a fully charged powerpack. Then…

Vile dashed forward, trying to ram Zest, which was perfect from his point of view. He leapt up, but not too far, landing on the ride armor. He ignored the spiking pain as the armor shocked him and Vile shot him just long enough to slam his gun down right behind Vile's back. The armor would have protected Vile against even a point blank shot, but it couldn't prevent him from jamming the small weapon into place.

Vile screamed in frustration as he heard the classic whine of an energy weapon set on overload, and Zest leapt away, leaving a trail of blood. Vile tried briefly to free the weapon and throw it out, but then gave up as the whine scaled up, leaping free just before the gun went off like a particularly vicious grenade. Pieces of the armor slapped into the walls, blown free by the force, and Zest just barely avoided being hit by a large chunk. He winced at the force of it, then scowled as he registered how badly he was damaged. Vile had gotten quite a chunk of him when he'd jumped onto the armor.

Zest took a deep breath, and took his second gun in a two handed grip. It was the only weapon he had left, a second handicap. He would have to make every shot count.

The duel turned particularly vicious, with Vile not quite as fast and strong, but far more intact. Zest started to pant, his generator desperately trying to stay cool as he lost more vital fluids. Zest swore to himself, wishing the bleeding would stop. What had Vile hit when he was on the armor, anyway? His diagnostics answered, and Zest rather wished they hadn't. He wasn't feeling much because of shock and battle rage, but Vile had shot him just above the gut at point blank range.

Vile laughed coldly as he realized that, and Zest slowly fell to one knee, breathing hard. There was only one last chance, and it depended on Vile being overconfident and cruel. Hell, that was a good bet. Zest slowly dropped his gun, as if he were beaten, a hand dropping down beside his leg.

He raised his head slowly, as Vile walked up to him, and grimaced.

"My friends will stop you," he said weakly, and Vile laughed again, leaning closer so his shoulder gun was almost touching Zests forehead.

"I think not. By the time they get here, you'll be dead, and I'll be gone." Vile said, amused. "Any last words, Zero 1.0?" Zest almost groaned. He couldn't believe that had once been his name.

"Yeah. Life's a bitch-" Zest abruptly moved, with the snakelike reflexes that had put Zero to the ground. Vile never knew what hit him, as the shot rang out and the back of his head exploded, showering the ground with red and black fluids and wires. "And then you die."

Zest slumped to the floor, feeling his systems finally giving up and going into emergency shutdown. The world was getting vague and distant, but it didn't matter… he'd won…


	5. Chapter 5

When Zest finally came to, it was to a beeping. A really annoying, repetitive beeping that seemed timed to the throbbing in his head. Zest groaned, slowly opening his eyes.

_The repair bay… ha, I must be alive._ Zest thought muzzily. _No huge surprise, I feel too bad to be dead._ He levered himself with one arm, sending dull pain through most of his body and looked down at his belly. He was out of his armor, and it looked like someone had been doing serious work on him. It was still only half completed, but he was certainly out of immediate danger… even if there was a monitor connected to his dataport. Zest grimaced, and reached up to yank it out-

"Hey!" Zest grimaced again as Lifesaver suddenly snapped at him. "Leave that alone! You're under observation."

"Hello to you too, doc," Zest said with a weak wave, and let himself collapse back onto the table with a sigh. He slowly glanced around the room, trying to figure out who was injured and how badly. There were several Hunters he didn't know, and the rest were rookies. Mordred was there, very badly injured. It looked like something had tried to tear his face off, and met with a lot of success. Chalene was there, but Arby wasn't, and Zest winced as he put Arby in the "probably dead" category. Zest couldn't see all the others without sitting up, and was considering doing that when Chip walked in.

"Zest!" Chip beamed as he saw his friend was awake, and jogged over to his side. "How are you feeling?"

"Like crap. Got any beer?" Zest asked wistfully, but Chip shook his head with a grin.

"Nuh uh, Lifesaver said you're not supposed to eat anything until tomorrow. Too much damage to your internals, eating would be a strain."

"Lifesaver can… nevermind." Zest pushed himself up with a grunt, and Chip gripped his shoulders, helping him. "Who's dead, who's alive and who's undead?" Chip looked puzzled, then decided that 'undead' was Zest's way of referring to the injured.

"The dead…" Chip hesitated, then started listing names. Zest grunted as if he had been punched in the stomach. They had lost a good quarter of their unit.

"Damn." Zest rubbed his face. The worst part of it was, it could have been worse… should have been worse. A bunch of half-trained rookies, against that group of Mavericks… 25 fatalities was good, but that didn't take the sting out of it. "What about the other units? The Hunters?" He wondered if they were technically Hunters now. Hazing had been outlawed since a vague incident involving chili peppers and balloons, so the Hunters had developed different rituals for acceptance. Rookies were accepted into a unit after graduation, but they were still newbies until they had been blooded in battle. Their class had done things so completely backwards, getting blooded before graduating, that he had no idea what the commanders would do with them.

"Pretty bad… the X unit got ambushed." Chip said softly, and Zest grimaced. "They think maybe we have a spy, or something… it was bad."

"Is X…?" Zest had to ask, even if it was probably a stupid question. If X hadn't been alright, the already grim mood in the repair bay would have been down ten notches. Chip shook his head quickly.

"Oh no, X is fine! Well, not fine but he's holding off repairs," Chip replied, and Zest nodded. That meant X was hurting but being gallant about it, letting the worse off go first. He had to be pretty sure there wouldn't be battles soon, to do that. "But a lot of his unit didn't make it. The 0'th pulled through better, and the 13'th, but the 15'th got mauled with X's unit."

"Axl?" The Hunter would have been with X, but… a cheerful voice answered.

"I'm fine!" Axl stepped up to Zest's table, smiling brightly at him. "I can't believe it… you killed Vile, and destroyed his ride armor? That cost Zero his life, the first time!" Zest couldn't help but smile at that.

"Yeah. Come to think of it, I did pretty much the same thing he did." The only difference was that instead of using a buster attached to his body, he'd used a hand held weapon. When it came to overload explosions, Zest's way was clearly superior. "Hey, Axl? Do you think we'll be plugged into a unit right away?" With all the casualties, Zest wouldn't have been surprised in the least if the commanders decided to just ignore the usual procedures and graduate them early. Axl sobered, his expression turning serious.

"Probably yes… things aren't good right now." Chip was looking a little googly-eyed at the thought. His amazement grew at Axl's next sentence. "Probably mostly into the X'th and the 15'th… I bet you two will get the X'th!" Zest smiled in pleasure at that thought. It would give him more time to be around X. And that was Axl's unit, as well.

"I'm going to have to replace the TP-340." Zest mused, then frowned as he thought of something. "The Mandarine…?" He pulled up one leg, searching for it, and sighed when he found the little gun.

"We found it and put it back in your leg. Is that what you killed Vile with?" Axl looked at the tiny weapon curiously. "It's so small." Zest grinned.

"Looks are deceiving. Yeah… Vile thought I was done for, and he got too close." Zest glanced at Chip. "It's like my dad said… if you have to be at someone's mercy, pray they're bad. Because bad people gloat, where a good guy will just shoot you."

"Well, not likely to be a problem with Mavericks!" Chip joked, and Zest frowned, shaking his head in faint disagreement.

"Life isn't that simple, Chip. People can be full of contradictions…" Zest blinked, realizing his voice was slurring slightly. Despite all the time he'd spent unconscious, his internal repairs were sapping his strength. And-

"Enough, you two." One of the nurses said briskly, purposefully shooing Chip and Axl away. "He needs some rest. Come back and bother him tomorrow." Chip and Axl let themselves get herded off, and Zest fell into an uncomfortable doze, filled with unpleasant dreams about explosions and dead friends…

* * *

A week later, Zest stood easily in line. What was left of his class was there, arranged in ranks. As Axl had foreseen, they were being graduated early… and unlike most classes, Hunters from all the units had turned out to watch. Usually, the only ones interested in graduating classes were the commanders and the graduates. But this class was different. They had fought, bled and proven themselves. Zest smiled faintly, almost touched. The presence of so many Hunters was a gesture of respect. Signas cleared his throat, and began to speak.

"As you all know, this is an unusual class. I don't think I need to explain why," Signas said, his dry humor bringing out some laughs. "But I will say this. You all did very well, better than we had any right to expect. Remember that." There was a brief pause, full of pride. "Now, you are all being graduated early. This won't be easy for you… you'll be taking on partial duties as Hunters, but continuing classes." Some wit in the back groaned, startling several other rookies into titters. Signas did them all a favor and ignored it. "I trust you will continue to do your best. Now, there are a few special assignments…" Zest listened attentively as Signas removed a few rookies from direct combat. Chalene was asked to accept the post of Navigator, which she did with dignity. Taj was placed with the medics. Zest wasn't sure how the kid had survived this mission at all, but he was glad Taj would be elsewhere. Then X stepped forward to call rookies into his unit.

"Zest." Zest stepped forward with a grin to accept his badge, and X gave it to him with a smile. "Welcome to the X'th."

"Thank you, X." X blushed faintly at his quiet reply, and the smile that went with it. Zest stepped back into the ranks, feeling proud and extremely pleased. His pleasure grew as Axl was called into the X'th… and Gilgamesh was not. He was given the 15'th, instead, and Zest could guess why… it had nothing to do with their personality conflict, only that Vosk had evaluated the three of them as the best rookies. They wanted to spread the talent around a bit.

Still, it would make his life a lot more pleasant. Zest grinned to himself. This was a good beginning.

* * *

"Why are you being so secretive all of a sudden?" Chip asked, annoyed, and Zest laughed. Axl just looked around curiously. The houses in this part of town were all made of grey stone, and had beautiful vines trailing up them, unfurling bright red flowers.

It was Halloween, and the three of them were going to get costumes. Axl already had a costume, as a matter of fact, but it was a costume dictated by laziness. A bedspread with a few holes cut for eyes made a serviceable ghost. Zest had insisted he had something better in mind, so they were going to see what it was. They had come a long way, too… they had teleported all the way to Montreal, a very old and respectable part of town with incredibly small roads. Zest always wondered how the traffic managed.

"I don't want to scare you off before… ah, we're here!" Zest knocked on a door, and was answered by a tall man with black hair and very bushy, expressive eyebrows. He was nearly a foot taller than Zest, so everyone was forced to look up a bit. His clothing was a very expensive suit and a blue silk tie with white snowflakes.

"Zest!" The two embraced, the man giving Zest a kiss on the cheek, to Chip's and Axl's surprise.

"Mario! It's been a long time," Zest said with a grin. Mario was not actually part of the family… he was part Italian, and flamboyantly acted it, where the McCoy family had definite Irish roots. But he was a good family friend. "How is the business?"

"Oh, it is slow! But do come in," Mario ushered them into his house. The house was as neat and clean as his appearance, and decorated with some truly lovely artwork. Chip was particularly taken with a nude, until Zest took him firmly by the arm. "So what can I do for you? This is for Halloween, yes?" Mario's usual métier was changes of appearance for those who needed a very good disguise. Anything short of actual surgery, he could do. But a group of Hunters would have no need for that skill, and since it was Halloween…

"Yes. Make us into women." Zest said, to his friend's amazement and horror. Mario beamed widely, rubbing his hands together.

"Ohhh A challenge! For this, 500 credits each," he said firmly, and Zest nodded, passing it over. It was steep for a Halloween costume, but cheap for Mario's services.

"Zest," Axl said, finally regaining his voice. "Are you crazy? You want us to go as girls?"

"Yep," Zest said with a smile. "It'll be he best Halloween costumes ever!" Chip slowly smiled, starting to get into it, and tugged on Axl's arm, whispering in his ear. Mario led them to his work room, and then the fun started.

"Armor?" Chip said dubiously, looking at what Mario proposed for them to wear. It was female Reploid armor, but not really authentic armor. No, it was lightweight plate that looked real but wouldn't stop an ordinary gun, let alone a buster shot. But it was easily adjustable and could make a human look like a Reploid, which was its real purpose. The ones Mario had for them were female types, all with skirts that would disguise their lack of hips. The one for Zest also had tremendous chest space…

"I see! That way no one will know the jugs are empty." Zest said brightly, making his friends blush. Mario frowned.

"Well, yes, unless you want to look like a woman with the armor removed…?"

"Oh gods, no!" Axl said, shaking his head. Mario shrugged.

"That makes things easier. Now, step in here so I can measure you…"

The session was both interesting and boring. Chip and Axl were fascinated by the effects Mario could get out of makeup, but bored by how long it took. They were pleased by how comfortable the costumes were, though. The lightweight armor had been carefully adjusted to each of them, so it didn't chafe at all, and the helmets Chip and Axl were given had hair attached to them, so they didn't need wigs. Although it took some work to hide Axl's normal hair under his helmet.

Zest looked in the mirror at the final result. He looked remarkably like a girl, although a very big, strapping one. The armor he was wearing was dark blue and lime green, and he appeared to be remarkably busty. Carefully applied makeup had completed the illusion, giving him a very feminine cast. Chip looked even more pretty, with his slighter build and dusty rose armor. Dark brown curls touched his shoulders, moving every time he turned his head. Axl was in black and white armor, with straight white hair hanging down to his buttocks. Mario hadn't been able to conceal the scars on his face, so he'd decided to play them up, using face paint to decorate them with vibrant colors. They looked like a particularly strange tattoo. Mario had even fitted them with voice disguisers, so they didn't have to work at sounding like girls. The end result was a very convincing illusion.

"So, what do you think Mario? Will we do?" Zest said brightly, modeling his outfit. Axl laughed, and tried to mimic him… the redheaded Hunter had slowly gotten into the idea. It was outrageous enough to be right up his alley, once he thought about it. Chip blushed, then followed suit. Mario regarded then keenly, then nodded with a smile.

"You are all most beautiful. Go, go knock their socks off!" Mario gently shooed them out. The three Hunters regarded each other for a moment, then Zest smiled.

"The party will be on soon. Let's teleport back."

* * *

Zero looked around, pleased. The auditorium had been heavily decorated with black and orange crepe streamers, false cobwebs, and large red lights had been hung from the ceiling, giving the room a strange, dark illumination. Robotic bats and ghosts slowly lazed around the ceiling, sometimes ducking down to buzz the crowd. A very large buffet table was set up along one wall, filled with monster themed food. Ribs in a sauce that looked disturbingly like blood, chicken wings that had been treated with a green crust, cookies shaped like bats… ladies fingers that looked disturbingly like the real thing…

"This is a great party, Alia," he said approvingly. Alia, Layer and Palette had organized the party, and dragooned a very large group of Hunters into helping them. That had resulted in a lot of whining, but a really great final product. And all the mechanics had gotten in… the little drones on the ceiling were the least of it. There were tiny robotic spiders and even a disembodied hand scrambling along the floor, on the walls and among the food. The hand seemed to have some kind of bizarre affinity to the ladies fingers. Zero wasn't sure what the deal was with that. "I love the music." Instead of the usual haunted house themes, it was classical stuff… but just a touch creepy. It definitely added to the ambience.

"Thank you," Alia said with a pleased smile, sipping her punch. The glasses had been bought specifically for the party, and had tiny witches on them.

"Hey, who is that?" Zero said, as he spotted a pretty girl in black and white armor. "I've never seen her before." She wasn't in a costume, either, which was odd. Zero had dressed up as a pirate, with the name of a well-known (and despised) company written across his chest. The joke wasn't particularly subtle.

"Oh, she's new here… a receptionist, I think," Alia said, completely deadpan. She'd recognized Axl immediately, despite the makeover. Several of the girls in HQ had, and a few of the guys… but they were all sending friends over to ask for dances and dates, just to see their reactions later. It couldn't last very long, but for now, Zest, Axl and Chip were the prime entertainment of the evening. Alia grinned to herself, feeling particularly wicked… she knew about Axl's crush on Zero, so this would be interesting indeed. "Why don't you introduce yourself? I think her name is Sibi." That was the alias Axl was using, for those who weren't in the know.

"Why not?" Zero said agreeably, tossing back his punch. Then he sauntered over to her. "Hi there, beautiful." She turned around, surprised, and Zero blinked at the tattoo between her eyes. It looked a little familiar.

"Ah… h-hi." She said in a soft soprano voice, and blushed charmingly. Zero was particularly captivated by her eyes… they were a very pretty green.

"Would you like to dance?" Zero asked, taking her hands with a smile. She looked awed… then blushed even more, and smiled hesitantly.

"I… I would like that." _Oh, Axl, this is SUCH a bad idea what are you DOING…_ Axl wasn't listening to himself. Zero obviously had no clue, and it was just so tempting…

Nearby, Zest was chatting up X, who had already laughed himself sick at Zest's costume. He had recognized Zest immediately, despite the makeup. X was dressed as a vampire, with some fairly authentic looking fangs and lenses to make his eyes look red. X noticed what was going on, on the dance floor, and poked Zest.

"Look at that!" X polished off another glass of punch, as Zest looked over. Zest blinked as he saw Axl and Zero, slow dancing to the classical music. Axl was looking blissful, his chin resting on Zero's shoulder.

"Oh, that is not good. The kid is setting himself up for a world of hurt," Zest muttered, and X blinked, giving the situation a second look. He was a bit buzzed… the punch was a bit stronger than he had expected. But it was easy to see what Zest was talking about. Plenty of people knew about Axl's feelings for Zero, but now absolutely everyone would have at least a faint clue.

"You don't really think so?" X said, doubtful. "He really feels that way? I don't think Zero likes guys."

"Yeah… I hope they don't do something they'll both regret." Zest watched for a moment, then shrugged… it was Axl's business, really. He had only drank one cup of punch, so he wasn't drunk and would have to fend for himself.

"Mmm… this punch is good." X set about getting another glass. Zest suddenly grinned, a few plans of his own coming to mind.

"Isn't it?" Zest agreed. "Actually, you should try to blue punch, it's even better." It was also stronger. X smiled, taking a cup of that. Zest winced as he saw Zero giving Axl a slow, lingering kiss. Zero could tell that 'Sibi' was very attracted to him, and all the Hunters were watching, morbidly curious. Zest hesitated, then caught Chips' eye and made a slashing motion across his throat. Chip nodded grimly. They needed to do something about this before Axl ruined his friendship with Zero entirely. Dancing was one thing, but kissing… it was going too far. Things had the potential to get really messy.

Chip delicately cut in, distracting Zero long enough for Zest to get a grip on Axl's wrist and drag him away. Axl looked at him with betrayal in his face.

"Zest, I was-" He started whispering furiously, and Zest shook his head sharply.

"Getting yourself in a load of trouble," Zest said flatly. "He thinks you're a girl, Axl!" Axl tried to pull away, then stopped, a despairing look on his face.

"I know…" Zest snagged a cup of blue punch, and put it into his friend's hands.

"Here, drink up. You'll feel better." Then he noticed something. "If you'll excuse me… X just fell over. Chip's going to break the news to Zero, okay?" Axl nodded miserably, downing the punch in one long swallow as Zest went over to retrieve the blue Hunter. He had a few plans for X, and him being drunk wouldn't get in the way at all…


	6. Chapter 6

X yawned, then winced. His head was pounding, ruining what would otherwise have been a very wonderful morning. He felt very tired, and oddly satisfied. There was a slight pain in his hips, but nothing compared to the throbbing in his head.

X yawned again, and slowly dragged himself out of bed. "Ugh, parties… I have to watch that punch." He winced, rubbing his head. "I wish Zero wouldn't spike it like that." He always found it very hard to judge the alcohol content under the sweet taste of the punch. Like wine coolers, but with more kick. X shuffled to the bathroom, entirely naked, to get a large glass of water and a couple aspirin. That accomplished, he shuffled back out, intending to go back to bed-

_Holy CRAP!_ X stopped, stunned, as he finally took a real look at his bed. And realized that someone else was in it. _What the… I am going to KILL Zero… wait, who is that?_ X's thoughts ground to an incoherent stop as he took in the painted face, looking very pretty asleep, and the flat chest… for one wild moment, he thought he had slept with a transvestite or perhaps a hermaphrodite. Then he saw the long, golden hair and remembered. _Oh… Zest!_ X's breath left him in a relieved whoosh as he remembered Zest's costume from yesterday. It was still a hell of a thing, but at least it wasn't outright frightening.

"Zest," X said softly, blushing lightly as Zest refused to stir. He seemed to be so deeply asleep it would take an avalanche to wake him. "Zest?" X hesitated, then reached out to gently touch his shoulder-

A hand shot up, gripping his wrist almost painfully as Zest's eyes snapped open. Zest blinked, his grip on X's wrist relaxing almost immediately as he realized who was there.

"Good morning, X," Zest said with a smile. "How are you?" X blinked. This was almost surreal.

"Erm, I'm fine, except for a headache." X's gaze traveled down to where the blanket had slipped from Zest's shoulders, revealing his chest… X blushed, dragging his gaze up to Zest's face. It was still painted, so that didn't really help too much. "Zest… what happened last night?" Zest smiled, his eyes twinkling.

"Well, I should think that's obvious X," Zest said, sitting up with an impish grin. "We came to your room and made mad, torrid love. Don't you remember?" X blushed brightly, because he DID remember. Bits and pieces, anyway. And some of those bits… X tried to tear his mind away from them. They were very interesting, and he was all too sure that Zest would be willing to start something again. And his head was hurting way too much for that, no matter how interesting it was.

"Zest…" X hesitated, then sat down on the bed beside him. "What do you want from me?" He wanted to be sure. Zest had been flirting with him, asking him out, for weeks. Zest looked at him seriously.

"I want to be your lover, X," he said simply. "I really like you… you're great." X blushed as Zest put an arm around his shoulders, smiling. X hesitated, then relaxed against him. This was really very pleasant… and he liked Zest, too. Although…

"Zest, this can't affect our working relationship," X said seriously. "I'm still your commander." He wasn't going to allow any rumors of favoritism to circulate. Zest shrugged with a smile.

"That's fine by me. I'm not expecting you to go easy on me!" Zest grinned. "So, are you feeling a bit better?" X blinked. His headache was pretty much gone… and he could guess what Zest had in mind. X smiled shyly. He couldn't remember all of what had happened last night, but he could recall enough that he wanted to do it again.

"Yes… but could you wipe off that makeup before we do anything?" X flushed. "Sorry, but… it's disturbing." Zest laughed, and slipped out of bed.

"No problem!" He could see how it would be very strange, now that they were both sober. And he'd need to take it off soon… he wasn't going to wear it for his patrols and classes. X watched him go with a small sigh. Zest was really incredibly attractive, but X wasn't quite sure how this would work out. He'd never dated someone in his own unit before, let alone taken a lover. How would it work out?

He'd just have to see.

* * *

Two weeks later…

Zest wiped off his face with one hand, a gesture of pure exhaustion. He slowly reached down to the front of his hovercycle, pulling a water bottle out of a custom holder he'd had installed. He took a long drink from it, and passed it over to Kikana. The younger Hunter was wilting in the heat, and accepted it with a weary smile through the grime on his face.

The two of them were all that was left of a patrol of four. Zest closed his eyes in pain, dropping his head. Their patrol had encountered some random Mavericks destroying a small farmhouse. They had immediately spread into attack formation… and hit a mine. Zest had managed to leap free, and Kikana had been in the back, but the other two Hunters were gone. Zest hadn't known them well, but he still mourned. They had killed all the Mavericks, but Zest was in a fine fury over it. How had the Mavericks mined that particular direction? Sheer, dumb luck? It must have been…

And he wasn't looking forward to explaining the whole thing to X. X was quite firm about not playing favorites, but to him, that meant taking a very… firm attitude with Zest. Too firm. No one was asking why X was playing favorites, but Chip had asked why X was picking on him. Zest had winced, but hadn't answered. Not too many people seemed to realize that he and X were lovers, and that suited X fine.

_But it doesn't suit me fine,_ Zest thought sadly. _And why am I thinking about my love life when two Hunters are dead? Life stinks…_ Zest turned a little to look at Kikana. He had revived a bit, with the cool water in his system. In addition to the battle they had just fought and the wounds they had taken, it was high summer in Louisiana. The temperature was sky high and the humidity was almost a hundred percent. It was maddening.

"I hate this place." Zero swatted at a fly that was idly circling his head. "Who would live in this wet hell?" More than anything, he longed for his family and the dry, arid plains they based their operations on… it wasn't perfect, tornados were a danger, but at least it wasn't so damned wet.

"I don't know," Kikana said, longing in his voice. "I want to go home to Canada…" Zest blinked at him.

"You're Canadian? What part?" He asked curiously. He didn't really know a lot about Kikana.

"Quebec." Kikana smiled wearily. "And yes, I speak French."

"I wasn't going to ask, really," Zest protested mildly, grinning. Then the communicator clicked on, and he winced.

_Zest, what's going on out there? You've stopped moving._ Alia's voice came over the circuit. Zest sighed, and quickly outlined the situation. _Not good. I'll tell X._

"I wish you wouldn't," Zest said wearily, startling a laugh from Kikana. But the communicator was already off, and Alia didn't hear. Which was probably just as well, as X's voice came on a moment later.

_Zest, what's happening out there?_ Zest steeled himself for a mini-ordeal, and X didn't disappoint, grilling him for the next ten minutes on every detail of the fiasco. _Come back to HQ for repairs._ X finally ordered, and the communicator clicked off. Zero ignored Kikana's sympathetic expression, gunning his hovercycle's engine and taking off.

He really could use repairs, but he wasn't looking forward to having a 'chat' with X. It hadn't been his fault, but it still wouldn't be pleasant. It never was.

* * *

"Jesus Christ, what's X got against you?" Gilgamesh asked Zest. They had both been assigned to clean the hoverbikes, as punishments. Zest wasn't sure what Gilgamesh had done, but Zest was there for 'letting' his patrol go into disaster. He'd been in charge of it, after all, even if there had been no sign of the mine…

Gilgamesh wasn't as difficult to be around as he had been before. Not being in direct competition with Zest had lowered his distaste for the other rookie… and Gilgamesh was still too junior to lock horns with Zero. But he'd obviously managed to piss someone off, to end up cleaning hoverbikes. That was the Maverick Hunter equivalent of KP duty. The work was too delicate to be left to drones, but dirty, difficult and not at all glamorous.

Zest slammed a cover down, harder than strictly necessary. He considered the question for a moment, scowling… then decided he didn't care. If the truth bothered X, that was X's problem. "We're lovers." There was a brief, shocked silence.

"So he's giving you shit jobs because your lovers? Gee, that would make me feel all sexy." Gilgamesh said, amazed and slightly derisive. Zest scowled at him.

"He doesn't want rumors of favoritism, okay?" Zest started on the next bike, scrubbing industriously. He wanted to get done and get out of there. Gilgamesh might be more tolerable, but he still wasn't one of Zests favorite people.

"So this is anti-favoritism, then?"

"Yeah," Zest said softly, still scrubbing. "I think it is." Zest was starting to feel severely picked on, and if Gilgamesh was noticing, it couldn't just be his imagination. "I think I need to talk to him about it." He was dreading that conversation, but he couldn't tolerate this treatment for much longer. If he had to transfer to the 15'th or the 0'th, so be it, but this was getting out of hand.

"Good luck on that," Gilgamesh said with a kind of rough sympathy. "I remember when I had to talk to a girl…" Zest let the story roll over him, making appropriate grunts at the right spots. If the other Hunter was putting some effort into being sociable, he could be a good listener. But in his mind, Zest was considering how he would talk to X about this issue.

He really wasn't looking forward to it.

* * *

Later that day…

Zest picked at his food. He and X were eating together in X's room, and it was very private. X smiled warmly at him, giving Zest a rather surreal feeling. X seemed to expect that what was happening in the unit wouldn't change Zest's feelings off the field.

And maybe it wouldn't have, if it had been fair. But Zest didn't feel it was, especially the problem with the mine… that was something for the Navigators to pick up, and if they couldn't, what was he to do? Besides possibly get killed. He didn't think attacking had been reckless. It was the usual action…

"X, I was wondering," he said, looking down at his plate. "Could I transfer to another unit?" He really hated the thought of doing that. He would have to leave Chip and Axl… they got partnered together a fair bit, on missions. Zest glanced up, catching X's expression… surprise and dismay.

"What? Why?" X sounded honestly bewildered, which only annoyed Zest. Was he honestly that clueless?

"X, when I get several people trying to reassure me that it's not my fault, you don't hate me and you'll like me someday, I start getting a clue that something's wrong," Zest said sardonically, making X flush. "And then when my best enemy from my rookie time asks what you've got against me, I know it. This has got to stop, or I've got to go."

"I am not being unfair," X said defensively. "You could have-" Zest scowled, and set his fork down with a loud clatter.

"I'm not going to argue about the particulars, X. The problem is that it's a pattern." Zest had considered the arguments he would use for a long time, and he knew that if X pulled him into discussing specific instances, things would degenerate into a useless shouting match. Because any one of the individual instances could be interpreted either way… it was the cumulative negative effect that was the problem. "And if I have to keep taking this, it's going to kill the romance." X looked troubled, but shook his head.

"You're imagining things… Zest, I'm just trying to be fair to everyone." Zest resisted the urge to snap at him, and stood up.

"Just think about it, alright?" Zest pulled on his black leather jacket, to X's distress.

"Where are you going?" Zest zipped it up, then looked back.

"Out. I want to be alone for a while." X looked deeply trouble, but only watched as Zest left the room.

As Zest walked out the door to Hunter HQ, his communicator crackled on.

_Zest, where are you going? It's late._ Zest smiled fondly. He rather liked Nana, even if she acted like an overprotective mother most of the time, especially to the younger Hunters.

"I think I'll head over to the Spaghetti Factory." He hadn't eaten much of his meal with X, and was still hungry. "They should still be open, it's only 8, and I love their casserole. Ya know?" His family had introduced him to a wide variety of cuisine, but Italian was one of Zest's favorites. Right up there with East Indian, followed closely by Cajun and Chinese… oh, heck, he liked everything. Except sushi. Some of his cousins swore by it, but after the wasabi incident, Zest hadn't been able to touch it.

_Oh, that's a great place. Going down by __MacInty__ Ave_ _Can you check to see if there's a mailbox for me? I'm going to the shoe shop down there tomorrow._

"Sure thing," Zest said agreeably. He understood why she wanted to know… it was always nice to combine errands. So he kept his eyes open as he walked down the streets. "There's a mailbox on the corner, Nana."

_Ah, thank you. Have fun!_ The communicator switched off, and Zest smiled fondly again… then stopped as a familiar voice hailed him.

"Zest?" Zest turned around, startled, spotting the speaker.

"X?" Zest stared. X was smiling at him, standing in an alley right beside him… but how had X gotten ahead of him? Well, Zest hadn't been going very fast… but why?

"I wanted to talk to you," X said with a sweet smile, his blue eyes twinkling. "Please, come here?" Zest hesitated. Something was… off. But it was X… he slowly stepped closer, walking into the alleyway.

"X, why did you follow me?" He said, baffled, then stiffened in surprise as X took a step towards him, and hugged him, pulling his head down into a kiss. "Mrrff?" Zest started to return the kiss, confused and hesitant but willing-

Then jerked away with a violent cough, his hands going to his throat as he felt something COLD there. X was still smiling at him, but it had turned from gently sweet to sweetly poisonous.

"What… the… hell…?" Zest choked out, trying to regain his breath. His knees buckled as the horrible cold, choking feeling got worse. X smirked, and stepped close.

"Don't worry. You'll find out soon." X said kindly, then gripped Zest's shoulders and slammed him into one of the brick walls. Blinding pain flashed through Zest, and then he knew nothing more…

* * *

"Commander X?" Chip peeked into X's office cautiously. Axl was right behind him, looking just as worried and nervous as Chip felt.

Neither of them wanted to bring this to X's attention. They were well aware of the relationship Zest was trying to cultivate with the blue Hunter, and all the difficulties he was having with it. They would have had to have been blind not to notice the latter. So they didn't want to bring something to X that would get Zest in trouble. On the other hand… something was wrong…

"What is it?" X looked up at them, looking ragged and worn, as if he hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night. Chip hesitated, until Axl poked him in the back.

"Erm, sir… we're both kind of worried. Zest hasn't reported for duty and we were supposed to be going out together. We were wondering if you knew where he went?" Chip asked hesitantly, and X put down his pen with a frown.

"He hasn't come in?" X hesitated, then switched on his communicator. "Alia, do you know where Zest is?" There was a brief pause, then Alia came back.

_No, sorry X, we don't have a fix on him. But there's a note someone left here about him going to see his family?_ X winced, surprised and hurt. Had their conversation bothered Zest that much? It hadn't seemed like it, but maybe Zest had just been hiding it well.

"Thank you, Alia," X turned off the communicator, and looked at Chip and Axl gravely. "The Navigators say that he left a note about going home… but this will have to be reported." When a Hunter went AWOL, it wasn't a laughing matter. Chip looked very unhappy, but accepted it with a nod. X was right… Zest had gone over the line in this. Way over. "Try to find a third for your patrol, but if not, go out as a pair."

"Yes, sir," Chip said, stepping back out of the room as Axl tried to flash X a grin. It was weak, though. Despite the note, he was worried about Zest. Missing patrol for anything wasn't at all like him. X watched them go, then sighed and logged in the missing report with a note about the visit to his parents. Then he did his best to forget about it.

That would come back to haunt him, in days to come.


	7. Chapter 7

Zest slowly came to with a groan of pain. He tried to move, and gasped as spokes of pain traveled down his skull. Confused and feeling like his brain was encased in cotton wool, Zest tried to figure out what was going on. His head hurt, he couldn't move his arms, and he seemed to be standing… well, sort of, his toes just barely touched the ground. And there was hard steel pressed against his back.

"I am in the Dungeon?" Zest muttered, remembering a Dominatrix club one of his brothers had taken him to once. "Some of those ladies can be so bitchy… ow!" He shivered as he tried to pry his eyes open, wishing he could rub them… they seemed to be gummed up with dried blood. But he finally blinked, and managed to focus on his surroundings. "…"

He couldn't see a thing. The room was utterly black, a darkness that defeated any attempts to penetrate it. Zest closed his eyes again, and breathed deeply, doing his best to identify scents. Steel, oil, burnt plastic… Zest frowned. Those were smells he associated with damaged Reploids. Maybe he was smelling himself.

A door opened, and lights were flicked on, briefly blinding Zest. He winced, closing his eyes tightly and riding out the pain in his head. Eventually, when he thought he had adjusted, he opened them again. And almost wished he hadn't.

X… no, someone who looked like X was standing in front of him, flanked at either side by powerful Mavericks. Zest shivered faintly as he looked at the expression on X's face. The Maverick copy was absolutely identical, on the surface, but his smile was like a dark mockery of the one X would have worn. X's smile was warm, generous and sweet. This copies expression was just as sweet, but it made Zest want to shudder. It was wrong…

"Hello, Zest." The copy said smoothly, smiling. "You can call me Dark X." Zest took a deep breath, and managed to sneer.

"Another stupid Maverick copy. Who did they get to make you?" Dark X raised an eyebrow, not disturbed by Zest's attitude at all. He smiled sweetly, reaching out to pat Zest's cheek… and jerking his hand away with a laugh, as Zest tried to bite him.

"Ah, Zest. Are you a stupid Maverick copy? But unlike you, I am what I was meant to be." Dark X slowly looked Zest over, his eyes twinkling with amusement and… Zest shivered. There was something dark in the copies eyes, dark and joyful. "Ah, Zest… we're going to have so much fun together."

That was what Zest was afraid of.

* * *

"It's been a week, Chip," Axl said, fretting and pacing. They were in the lounge and were theoretically watching a movie… but neither one of them could concentrate on it. Only one thing concerned them, right now.

Zest was still gone. There hadn't been any word, not a phone call or e-mail. X seemed depressed, but not worried… but Chip and Axl were getting really worried. Unlike X, they'd had no falling out with Zest before he disappeared. He wouldn't just go and sever all contact with them! And for a week! If Zest reappeared tomorrow, he'd be docked a months pay and put on probation for this.

"The only way I can see him going with his family for this long is if they accosted him somewhere, and there was some kind of family problem going on he can't tell us about," Chip said, trying to think of an innocent explanation. Then he chewed his lip. "But I would have expected an e-mail by now." Zest would know that his friends would be worried. Axl sighed, and flopped down in a seat beside Chip.

"So what do we do about it?" Axl asked, and they were both silent for a moment, considering. Then Axl suddenly brightened. "I know! I bet Zest's computer has ways to contact his family on it." Chip blinked, tilting his head.

"Well, yes… but I don't know Zest's password. And I bet he has a lot of encryption." Zest's family was big on privacy, so Zest would have advanced protections. Axl grinned.

"Oh, that won't be a problem! We can ask Gate." Gate had finally been purged of the virus and brought out of his coma. He was good friends with Axl, mostly because they were both in similar situations… not particularly trusted by the majority of the HQ. Gate because of his Maverick history, and Axl because of his former membership with Red Alert. That was gradually changing for Axl, as he proved himself and the younger Hunters developed friendships with him, but Gate had a more difficult time. The technical staff didn't change as often, and Gate wasn't as engaging as Axl, so he treasured the few friends he had. Axl was high on that list. "I bet he can get in, no problem." Chip brightened at the thought. He didn't know Gate well, but had heard about his technical genius.

"Let's go ask him," Chip said happily, jumping to his feet. The two Hunters dashed off, making unwary passersby flatten to the walls to avoid them. Although there was no real danger… when a young Hunter froze, they both neatly sidestepped her. They were very good at this sort of thing.

Finally, they burst into the research lab, to the surprise of the scientists working there.

"Gate!" Axl pulled to a stop in front of his station, grinning. "Are you busy?" Gate arched an eyebrow at him.

"Moderately. What do you want?" He asked, amused. He was certain Axl wanted something. Axl leaned forward, his expression suddenly turning serious, which surprised Gate slightly.

"We need help to break into a computer. Our friend, Zest, has been AWOL all week and the Navigators say he's with his family. It's really weird, though, that he hasn't contacted us. We want to get onto his computer and find out how to reach his family." Gate considered that for a moment, then nodded.

"Very well," He stood up, shutting off his station and stretching. "I've been here too long anyway. Show the way." Axl grinned again, and took off, more slowly this time. Gate wasn't nearly as familiar with quick avoidance, and it wouldn't be nice if he ran into someone trying to keep up.

"Thank you for helping," Chip added brightly, pleased. He really appreciated that Gate was willing to take time out of his day to do this for them. Gate waved it away.

"It's nothing. I appreciated the invitation to the paintball game." Axl grinned as he remembered that. He had organized some of the younger Hunters, booked one of the simulators, and with Chip's and Zest's help, created a scenario to remember. Recalling that Gate was a credible fighter, he'd cheerfully invited the scientist along.

"Even after Zest shot you off that wall?" Axl said innocently, and Gate smiled, amused.

"I nailed you first, grasshopper."

"He did too," Chip agreed with a grin, making Axl pout. "When you were gloating over nailing me!"

"Pthh…" They reached Zest's room, and Gate sat down at the terminal. "You'll have to be really careful, Gate… Zest's family is pretty paranoid. I don't know if the computer will self-destruct, but…" Axl shrugged, slightly helpless. Gate nodded, and started typing.

"It's not the first time I've dealt with something like this. Leave it to me." The two Hunters nodded, then glanced at each other, wondering what to do as Gate took care of that.

"Thumb war?" Axl offered, making Chip snicker.

"Why don't you get me coffee instead? And donuts?" Gate said as he typed. "Preferably apple fritters. Or maybe a cream cheese Danish."

"Sure thing, Gate!" Axl said cheerily. It would at least give them something to do. "C'mon Chip."

It took several hours for Gate to delicately part all the protections on Zest's computer. Although it could have been worse. Despite his families' paranoia, Zest's terminal held very little truly sensitive information, and as it turned out, it was not rigged to self-destruct under unfriendly probes. That allowed Gate to be a bit more direct in dealing with it.

"Here we are," He finally announced, sitting back. "What precisely do you want me to do?"

"Check his e-mails and see if he has any messenger programs, like AIM or IM." Axl urged him. "We need to figure out how to contact his family. Maybe they'll know where he is."

"Right." The two Hunters watched anxiously as Gate opened AIM… which fortunately had the screenname and password saved. The program opened and they started looking over the contact list.

"Red Hot Vixen?" Chip said, bemused, as a screen popped up. "Hey, she's talking to us!"

_Zest, where have you been? You missed the Tuesday poker game! We waited a half hour for you!_ The screen read.

"Uh oh," Axl muttered as Gate typed a reply. "That doesn't sound good." Unless this person wasn't part of Zest's family. That could be possible.

_This isn't Zest. He's been gone from HQ without leave for a week, and his friends were worried so they asked me to break into his computer. Are you from his family? There was a note left with the Navigators that he was going home. _There was a long pause, then the other person started typing. They waited for her to finish, watching the tiny 'typing in progress' icon.

_What are you talking about? Who are you? I'm his sister Angel, and I haven't seen him for months!_ Axl groaned as Chip looked slightly sick. Despite their worries, they had hoped he really was with his family. That would mean some serious, serious flak over completely skipping out on his duties… but it was still better than any other possibilities. _Who are you?_

_I'm Gate, and Zest's friends are Axl and Chip. Are you sure he isn't with anyone there?_ It was a far off hope, but maybe she hadn't been informed… there was a short pause.

_Dad's home, let me check._ There was another pause, then more typing. _Dad says no, he doesn't know anything about that so Zest couldn't. Dad knows everything, even stuff you'd wish he didn't. Hold on, Dad says he's going to send some people down._

"We can take care of it, now that we know," Chip protested, and Gate typed that in. But Angel was definitive.

_No way, Zest is ours! Besides, it'll make it a lot harder for your officers to sluff everything off if the family he's supposed to be visiting is right here protesting._

"She does have a point," Gate observed. "They might think you're being paranoid, since you're his friends."

_Dad wants to know,_ another message said, appearing on the screen. _You said a note was left? Did Zest write it? Any idea who left it? Zest said you thought you might have a spy?_

"Oh geez!" Axl winced. "Zest shouldn't have told people about that!"

"Who cares? They wouldn't be sharing it." Chip said practically. "And she's right, it would be easy for a spy to put the note in the Navigation room when someone went for coffee." Navigators ate at their station, but they still sometimes had to leave their post for refreshment. Since no one could predict those times, it had no effect on their duties. But someone observing the room could easily plant a note. Actually, that happened innocently fairly often.

"Well, what should I say?" Gate asked them pointedly.

"Um… tell her the note was typed and we don't know." The note would be absolutely no use in finding the spy. It could have been typed on any machine in the HQ.

_Ducky.__ Well, we're coming to set some fires… see ya in about four hours._ That was how long it would take, on a straight course, for them to reach Hunter HQ. It had taken Zest almost a day, but he had been riding the bus lines, which was more convoluted than military grade hovercycles heading over the bush in a straight line.

"Alright… let's go tell X!" Axl was sure this would seriously alarm the blue Hunter. If he took it seriously…

Elsewhere, X was looking over the casualty statistics and wincing. Casualties had been rising for some time, since the attacks that had almost wiped out the X and 15'th units. Since that, random casualties had gone up. X hated to see the figures… they were almost twenty percent over the usual for patrols and non-combat time. And the toll was being taken almost equally from all the units, and all experience levels, although newbies were still more likely to be killed. It was a sad fact, but just graduated rookies and newly blooded Hunters were always more vulnerable than the experienced. So many of the casualties were to things that seemed like simple bad luck, but it was almost impossible to believe that bad luck would persist this long, and-

X looked up, startled, as Chip and Axl barged into his office. Gate followed behind them, mostly out of curiosity… he wanted to see how this would go.

"X, Gate hacked into Zest's computer so we could contact his family-"

"And they say he's not there!" Axl interrupted Chip, creating a strange doppler effect. X looked back and forth between them, startled.

"What?" X said, confused. "Where else would he be?" X was still thinking about the reports, and his mind hadn't quite caught up with what they were saying.

"The Mavericks!" Axl exclaimed. "He's been kidnapped, X!" Chip nodded firmly. X blinked, startled… then winced, closing his eyes.

He'd been worried for Zest all week, a steady, knawing worry. But he had comforted himself by the thought that Zest was with his family. If he wasn't there.

"But the note…" X trailed off, all the suspicions about a possible spy coming back full force. "Oh, damn. But where could he be?" That was still the question. If the Mavericks had him, or even someone else, where could they have taken him? Chip looked helpless, but Axl had an answer of sorts.

"We don't know, but some of his family are going to be coming straight over. Maybe they'll have some ideas?" It was a faint hope, but a hope.

"Alright. I'll tell reception to expect them," X said, keying the communications link. "Nana? We're going to be having some visitors…"

* * *

Four hours later.

"Woof," Kumba sighed heavily, pulling off her helmet and throwing back her sweat soaked hair. "I hate long trips in the summer sun." They had traveled through scrub desert, mostly, and had taken care to stay hydrated and had applied liberal doses of sunscreen. It had still been unpleasant. Kumba's black halter top was dewed with sweat, and her black jeans were grubby from dust and dirt.

"Well, we're here." Angel hopped off her bike, putting her helmet into the back compartment. "Come on, hurry!" Her thick brown hair was tied back into a ponytail, and she was wearing blue jeans and a midriff baring tank top. Both were just as grubby as her sister's, but they revealed the snake tattoo on her arm, and another coiling on her navel.

"It's been four hours, Angel, a few more minutes won't matter." Her older brother, Thomas, said as he used a rag and a water bottle to get off the worst of the dirt. He heavily resembled their mother, with bright red hair and very pale skin. That skin was turning red, now, despite the sunscreen. "We should at least try to look presentable." Angel grumbled, but pulled out her own water bottle to get as clean as she could. Kumba was already taking care of the worst of her sweat, and trying to dry off her thick black hair.

As soon as they felt refreshed and marginally human, the trio went into Hunter HQ. They still attracted a lot of strange looks. Humans sometimes applied to Hunter HQ, but they typically didn't look like they had just run a patrol when they did so. The signs of hard travel were obvious on all of them. And Angel's tattoos were fairly unusual, as well.

But, as it happened, they were expected. Axl bounced to his feet… he had been sitting on one of the chairs, waiting for them.

"Hi, I'm Axl!" He held out a hand, and Thomas shook it. Kumba was quietly scanning the lobby, in the casual yet intense way of someone marking every single doorway and possible escape route.

"I'm Thomas," he introduced himself. "This is Kumba, and this is Angel."

"Nice to meet you. Right this way…" Axl led them into Hunter HQ. "Do you have a plan to find Zest?" He certainly hoped so. But Kumba snorted.

"In four hours? I don't think so. But we'll do our best to root out your spy, and if we can find that person we can find out where he's been taken." Axl brightened at that thought. "Although you DO realize that whoever has him has had him for a week? Things could be pretty damn messy, if he's alive at all." Axl winced.

"We know, but…" He reached X's office. "X! They're here!" X looked up from his work with a tired smile.

"Hello… I'm sorry we had to meet under these circumstances," he said, offering his hand. "Zest has told me a great deal about his family."

"It's all lies," Angel replied with a grin, but no one laughed. The circumstances were too grim. "We're here to help any way we can. I'm into computer security systems, Kumba's an assassin and Thomas is a freelance spy." X blinked at that set of qualifications. "Think we can be useful?"

"Maybe. We've had a lot of people trying to find where our security is breaking down." Although X couldn't recall them actually managing to secure a spy. Perhaps that would help.

But as it turned out, time had already run out.

* * *

Elsewhere…

"They know."

"Mmm. Too bad, I was hoping for longer. Are the traps in place?"

"Yes, we're ready. Should we start tomorrow?"

"Oh yes."

* * *

Kikana finished his bottle of orange juice, and stood up to put it away in his hovercycle.

It was a beautiful summer day in the far North. Kikana took a deep breath of the fresh air, and glanced around, beaming. They were deep in a pine forest, exploring the wilds of Alaska. And right now, his patrol had stopped for lunch.

"Cookie?" Shannon, one of the few human Hunters in the X'th unit, offered it to him. Kikana took it with a smile, and slowly ate it… it was a Vanilla lacy, spotted with currants. He loved how the wafers tasted, along with the chewy fruits.

"It's a perfect day," One of the others, a young female Reploid, said with a sigh. "I wish we could just stay here all day."

"Well, we can't." The team leader, a tall male named Magellan, said practically. "Speaking of which, it's about that time."

"Already?" Shannon said with a sigh, levering herself to her feet and adjusting her dark blue armor. "It's not- ghhrk!" She stopped, choking and gagging as a dart materialized in her throat and she fell to her knees. Her companions were briefly frozen in shock… and that shock was fatal.

When the team of ten Mavericks swooped down on them, they really had no chance at all.

* * *

_X, there's a parcel for you in the reception area._ X blinked, tilting his head as Alia's voice came over his communicator. _You have to sign for it._ X frowned, then shrugged. He had just finished a random, unscheduled patrol in a contested area. He and Zero had a great deal of flexibility in their duties, and used it to try and flush out Maverick activity. So far, though, the day had been quiet.

X slowly walked to the reception area… and found Zero already there, idly juggling his parcel from hand to hand as the delivery guy watched, slightly pissed off but not quite daring to object.

"Zero! What if that's breakable?" X snatched it from him, and blinked at the weight. "Light." The parcel was shockingly light, as if there was nothing inside but air, despite the rather large size. Zero grinned.

"I was about to ask! What, have you ordered a watch or something? A bit of jewelry for a girl?" Zero teased, but X shot him a quelling look. Right now, jokes like that weren't particularly funny.

"If you could just sign here?" The delivery guy, a young human, offered him the clipboard and a pen. X quickly scrawled his full name… a simple X being the symbol for illiteracy. "Thank you, sir." The delivery guy quickly walked out, to complete the rest of his rounds. X frowned at the box. It was definitely addressed to him, and couldn't possibly have anything harmful in it… any packages were scanned… so what could it be? He couldn't remember ordering anything. X quickly tore into the package and…

Gasped softly as Zero hissed a curse. X blinked rapidly, trying to hold back tears as he looked at the mass of golden hair inside the box. As he drew it out, a card fluttered free, landing on the ground… it was marked with the Maverick symbol.

X stared at the hair, eyes filling with tears. It took a long time for Alia's frantic messages to penetrate his mind.

_… Patrols 2, 12, 16 and 21 are not responding! X! Patrols 5, 8 and 10 are taking heavy fire! …Just lost contact with 3! Zero, X, all our patrols are under attack!_

"Come on, X!" Zero yanked the box and hair away from him, tossing them to the receptionist. "Hang onto those. X, we've got to go help."

"Y-yes… yes…" X managed to wrench his gaze away from the severed ponytail.

But he wouldn't be able to forget about it.

* * *

A few hours later…

Zest closed his eyes, ignoring the pain in his shoulders. That was routine, now.

Dark X always left him like this... tied upright to this frame, a bar over his head, with titanium cords that bit deeply into his wrists. All his weight fell on his arms and shoulders, unless he stood on tiptoe. Either choice was painful, but nothing compared to the other things...

Zest tried not to think about it, tried to just zone out, but his thoughts kept skittering back to what had happened, this last time. Dark X had come in with a roll of duct tape, and laughed, telling him he had something new in mind. Then he had slugged Zest so hard he could barely breathe, let alone struggle as the duct tape was fixed over his mouth.

Then he had beaten him. The blows had been carefully calculated for maximum pain, with minimum damage, and by the end of it Zest had been woozy and weak with the pain, hardly able to think straight, let alone resist as Dark X had bound him into the position he wanted on his back. Zest had managed to gather enough of himself to kick... and had suffered through another round of beating. Then Dark X had tied his legs up into a strange position, his knees bent high...

A tear trickled down Zests face, stinging. He'd found out what that position was for, as Dark X raped him, facing him. When he tried to turn his face away, Dark X grabbed his chin, forcing him to look into that grinning, hated face... and when he closed his eyes, Dark X had slapped him. His face felt tight with bruises, now.

Zest held in a despairing keen. There was no hope. He would not escape, not now... Dark X was so very wary of his fists, feet, teeth. And the other Mavericks had learned their lesson after Agile. They didn't rape him, only Dark X did that, but they came in to torture him whenever they felt like it. Agile had made the mistake of freeing the "helpless, unarmed" Hunter, and had paid for it. Zest was never unarmed when he had the use of his fists and feet. He'd ripped the bastard's face off, then tried to escape...

But he'd failed, and now no one would undo his bindings for any reason except Dark X... and he knew how to beat him until he couldn't struggle, could only try to breath and not scream at the terrible pain...

Hot tears slid slowly down his cheeks, tears he wouldn't shed when the Mavericks could see him. Tears of despair, pain at his fate. The Maverick Hunters weren't coming. If they could have, they would have weeks ago, when they'd received his hair. Maybe they didn't know where he was.

Maybe they didn't care. His tears fell more swiftly, as he let his head droop to his chest. He wanted to keen, but couldn't, wouldn't, not for the entertainment of the bastards who were doing this to him...

He could only hope the end would be soon. They'd get tired of their little torture toy, eventually, and execute him to a titillated audience.

What a thing to hope for...

* * *

Zest looked up as Dark X entered the room. He was frowning slightly, and Zest looked away. If he hadn't been in such pain, he would have shivered. That expression was so like X... at least, the way X frowned when they didn't agree...

But that was long ago and far away. The memories felt vague, almost beyond touching, and he lifted his head again as Dark X began to unbind him from the frame. He was slightly surprised. Usually he would beat him savagely first, to make sure he'd be compliant when... Zest bit his lip, trying to make his mind vacant. Dark X slid his helmet back onto his head, then recalled his armor to him. Zest couldn't figure out why...

As soon as his wrists were free, Zest did try to struggle... but his strength was still sapped from the beating and rape, only yesterday. Dark X landed several hard blows, then twisted his arms behind his back.

"Hush now, Zest." The evil Reploid whispered into his ear, and Zest tried to flinch away from the touch of breath. "Today's the day of your execution. Aren't you glad?" And he laughed, that sweet, joyful laughter that Zest hated so much. It was an obscene parody of X's laugh, and made him want desperately to hurt him, tear him to shreds and spit on the corpse... Zest felt shaken by the force of his own hate.

Then Dark X's words sank in. _It's ending. It's finally... ending._ A small smile crossed his face, making the bruises tighten with pain. His captor laughed again, then jerked back as Zest tried to bite him.

"Always so fiesty. It's too bad I can't keep you... I would have liked to see how long it would take to completely break you... but, alas, it's not my choice." Dark X sighed regretfully, then jerked Zest to his feet viciously. "Now walk, or I'll beat you half to death, then carry you out." Zest briefly considered it... but no... he might as well just go. This was what he wanted, what they were finally giving him. An ending...

But he was shocked and pained to see he wasn't alone, when they reached the grounds. Other Hunters were there, half a dozen, tied to titanium stakes. He didn't know two of them, knew the other three only vaguely... one was in Zero's unit, he recalled... but the last...

"Kikana." He choked out the name, feeling a deep pain. _Don't be here... no, don't be here..._ Kikana's purple armor was crazed and scorched, his head down. Zest was staring at him when he lifted it, saw him... and the despair on the Hunter's face turned to horror.

"Zest!" Kikana strained against the cords binding him... until a Maverick casually hit him, the sharp crack echoing through the courtyard. Zest felt his eyes burn.

"Sorry for him?" Came that sickening voice, mockingly. "Be sorry for yourself." Dark X and another, nameless Maverick bound him to his own stake. He could see they had set up a video feed... either recording or transmitting the scene.

"Why?" He asked dully. "Why don't you just infect them, make them Mavericks?" Although most Hunters would prefer death, it was more merciful from the Maverick perspective. Zest could see the expressions on the Hunters faces, Kikana's face... the despair, and the fear. They were all so afraid, and it made his heart hurt to see. He wasn't afraid... he welcomed death... but they didn't want to die, and it hurt to see.

"It will be more entertaining this way." Dark X said lightly. "And we so want to make a nice show for the audience, don't we?" Dark X tugged playfully on Zest's cropped hair, laughing as he avoided another bite.

Sigma stood in front of the camera, saying something, and Dark X went to stand beside him. Zest didn't listen. It didn't matter. Nothing they said mattered. He met Kikana's gaze again, seeing the horror, the despair, the concern... for him. Zest bit his lip, holding back tears. He'd wondered, sometimes, as he was being held, if his friends cared... One did, at least, and Zest suddenly felt like a fool for doubting them.

But it didn't matter. Zest closed his eyes as the Mavericks set to executing the Hunters. But he couldn't close his ears, as the screams rang out...

And as one familiar voice rose in agony, it was almost too much to bear. Was this what that sad youngster had joined the Hunters for? The young Reploid with an injured arm, whom no one had cared about enough to repair? The sadness had turned to happiness, as he laughed and found a place with his friends. Zest remembered the raspberry tart Kikana had tossed to him, from across the mess hall, and the laughter as the tart was passed from hand to hand. The shy smile that had slowly become so bright. Was this how it was ending? The crushing weight of despair said yes.

The screaming finally stopped, and Zest looked up to see X's face... and that hateful, sadistic smile that the real X would never have worn. Blood splattered the blue and black armor liberally, and dripped slowly down the Beam Sabre in one hand. Zest was sickened to recognize the powerful weapon with the engraved hilt. His own Beam Sabre...

"It's really too bad. I had so much fun." And Dark X slammed the Beam Sabre home, into Zest's gut.

Zest shook, unaware of his own scream as the pain seized him. It was worse than all the others, than anything he'd felt before. He felt it as Dark X slowly, cruelly drew the sword up. His scream turned into an agonized gurgle, as the blade touched his robotic lungs, and his chest heaved helplessly as Dark X tore it free. He couldn't breathe, and tasted the blood as it frothed up, staining his lips.

Zest could feel the pain dull, as his body refused to acknowledge it anymore. His head dropped to his chest again, the world growing distant... but he still felt it, when Dark X took his chin, raising his head, then kissed his nerveless lips in a mockery of tenderness.

Dark X licked the sweet blood away, and watched as the light slowly went out of the clear blue eyes. It was sweet, watching those final moments... when the awareness was finally gone, he dropped Zest's chin with that sweet, joyful laugh, and dropped the Beam Sabre at his feet.

A few minutes later, the Mavericks were gone, leaving the corpses for the Maverick Hunters to find... and resurrect, if they could...


	8. Chapter 8

In the repair bay, X was staring down at Zest's body. Tears were slowly running down his face, and he didn't try to stop them.

He was crying for more than just Zest, but his lover's broken body seemed to symbolize everything that had happened today. It hadn't been the worst day the Hunters had ever suffered… no, the day Sigma went Maverick, taking his own unit and mangling all the others was still in top place. The day Elysian had hit the ground was a definite second… the world was still recovering from all the effects of that. But today was at least tied for third.

Almost all of today's patrols had been annihilated. That was a good quarter of their total strength, just… gone. Patrols were hideously vulnerable, which was why their exact paths were randomized and locked in every week. Because of the random paths they took, it was impossible for the Mavericks to predict where any patrol would be. Unless they got hold of the weekly schedule.

And it was clear that that was precisely what had happened. Someone had given the schedule to them, and it made X want to scream. How? How could someone they had trusted do this to them? And who? Guilt assaulted X. He was the commander, he should have prevented this, somehow…

X was so absorbed in his self-recriminations and pain that it took a while for the sounds of a squalling fight to penetrate. But finally, it reached him, and he looked over at the participants with a frown.

"…And I say you're a douche bag!"

"Insolent bitch! I was built for this and trained by the best in the field!" Lifesaver glared furiously at Angel, who glared right back, her hands on her hips. "I certainly know more about Reploid repairs than some street whore wannabee!"

"And you're still a douche bag!" Lifesaver's face turned an alarming puce as Angel spat on the floor, in front of his feet. "I'm just the one who's fix him as long as he's been alive, you cretin!"

"Excuse me," X stepped in, mostly operating on reflex. He really didn't want to be the peacekeeper right now. He wanted to go to his room, curl up in a ball, and hope everything would just go away. But it wasn't going to, so… duty called. "What's the problem here?"

"This douche bag won't check Zest's neural net for activity!" Angel jabbed a finger at Lifesaver. X winced. Angel obviously didn't know much about Reploid physiology. Despite the transmission, it had taken them several hours to find the place their friends had been executed. Only one had been clinging to life, when they reached it. He was expected to make a full recovery. So was one more, whose power plant had gone into safety mode but not given up entirely. But given his wounds, Zest must have died within the first few minutes. Starved of power, his neural net would have gone into system failure, wiping away his personality functions. The person they knew was gone.

"Angel, it's been hours. There's no way his neural net could still have activity… I'm sorry." X said as comfortingly as he could, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She shrugged off his hand irritably.

"And you're a douche bag, too." X blinked… he'd been called a lot of things, some of them not at all complementary, but that was a new one. "Don't you morons think that maybe, just maybe, I know a bit about his systems? And the things we planted in them? He's got a backup battery in his head!"

"He's… what?" X asked cautiously as Lifesaver frowned, then turned away and started running a scan. Lifesaver's expression suddenly changed into the greatest show of surprise X had ever seen from him.

"I'll be damned," he muttered, which was almost more unexpected. Lifesaver never swore. "She's right. His neural net is active…" Lifesaver immediately called several nurses over, and they quickly began hooking Zest up to life support. However his neural net had been sustained this long, they wanted to make sure it would stay put. Angel and X backed out of the way, although Angel couldn't resist a few spiteful, I told you so's.

"But how?" X stared at Zest, hope and disbelief warring in him. Then he looked at Angel. "How…?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Lifesaver said, not looking up from his work. Angel shrugged.

"It's a micro-chemical cell battery. Only a prototype one, and dad got it from one of the engineers who worked on it. He wasn't sure what he'd use it for, until he got the idea of tying it into Zest's neural net in case he ever got killed." Her expression turned bleak, for a moment. Then she took a deep breath, and shook her head. "It's about the size of a pinhead, and it's implanted right into his neural net… it adds maybe six hours to the time he can be reactivated."

"Why is no one marketing that? I've never even heard of it." Lifesaver sounded personally affronted. Angel shrugged, then grinned.

"Well, maybe 'cause it's not meant for Reploids. We adapted it, but it's meant for really small equipment… that six-hour lifespan is more like a year for something less energy intensive than a Reploid neural net. And it can be recharged, too, but right now it's too expensive to market in any reasonable way."

"Hmm. How expensive?" Lifesaver stood back as the life support equipment flipped on. Zest was still technically dead, slashed apart, but his neural net was being fed a constant, low-level flow of energy. As long as he remained hooked to the support systems, they could take as long repairing him as they wanted to.

"About a quarter of a million." X's gasp was loud, and Lifesaver winced. "We only got it because it was the first prototype, and scheduled to be chucked in the wastebasket. Tecknologic has got better versions now, slightly cheaper. Just not cheap enough."

"I'll have to report that to Signas," Lifesaver said, and this time X winced. He could imagine what Signas would do with that information. The next time they got funding, he'd try to wangle a few of the little batteries free from the parent corporation of Tecknologic. If they were mostly in the prototype stages, they might let a few go as charitable contributions. Then they would be used on X, Zero, and the other unit commanders. Right now, that made him feel more guilty than anything else in the room. Why did they deserve such protection when others died? X closed his eyes. He knew the answer. _Because we're the heroes, the heart and soul of Hunter HQ…_

He shook his head, pushing the thought away, and looked back at Zest. He was still tattered, torn and broken, but it seemed like there was some light in his eyes, now. X knew it was only his own imagination, but still… he reached own to touch the soft, roughly cut golden hair.

"You'll be alright soon," X whispered softly. "Everything will be alright."

Why did he not really believe that?

* * *

Thomas leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes and lacing his fingers together over his stomach.

He had been analyzing data all day, and had found no answers. The common weakness in all spying operations was the need to report. Data was useless unless you reported it, but that was always a dangerous proposition. There were many methods of communication… dead drops were good, although you ran the risk that the message would be lost in transit. Thomas remembered a time he'd been forced to send the same message five times, in a bottle down a canal. Idiotic, but it had worked in the end and no one had clued in. Lord only knew what had happened to the first four bottles. Probably collected by the poor for recycling. And then there was actual, face to face meetings with a contact. Contrary to the popular image of a clandestine rendezvous under the stars, such contacts usually occurred in very busy, noisy settings like a bar or a restaurant. A steakhouse, preferably, if you could get a seat near the grill. The sizzling did vicious things to anyone trying to eavesdrop electronically. E-mails could be used to send messages, but it was wise to keep them very short and obscure. Thomas winced faintly as he remembered how he had used a spam e-mail to indicate to a colleague that it was time to break and run. It had saved his friends life, but it had still been… spam. And for arranging a meeting, nothing beat the personal section of the local newspaper. He sometimes wondered how many of those silly personals were actually sincere, and how many were messages from people like himself.

But nothing in the data he'd gleaned had given any indication of how the spy was making his or her reports. Thomas had the nagging feeling that he was missing something, something that would be clear if only he understood everything about how Hunter HQ worked.

He turned his mind away from that fruitless train of thought, and considered the other information he'd put together. He'd been absolutely certain, coming into HQ, that he would find the Hunters had underestimated the extent of the spies' activities. Now he was sure of it. From the casualty reports and all the instances of suspicious bad luck, he was sure someone had been feeding the Mavericks the patrol schedules for months. They had been keeping their depredations modest, making it look like bad luck, but it had been nothing of the sort. And after digging a bit, he'd found something more disturbing. An odd number of Hunters had gone AWOL in the past six months. Nineteen, in fact. Records before that showed the average number of Hunters who disappeared without a trace, for six month periods, was about five. That still seemed a little high to Thomas, but he supposed the combat got to some people, and they couldn't bear to face the music. Still, that left fourteen disappearances more than there should be. Perhaps he could assume it had been a hard six months, and take away four from that total. Ten unexplained disappearances?

Why hadn't this alarmed the Hunters? Checking the records, he snorted with amusement. The spy had been quite clever. The few reliable Hunters who had disappeared had left typed notes to friends giving various excuses, which had naturally been turned in to the commanders. The rest who had disappeared were mostly disciplinary problems or loners. Good Hunters, perhaps, but for one reason or another their commanders hadn't been particularly surprised to see the last of them. But how had their disappearances been arranged?

Checking the records for several of them, he discovered that most of the AWOL Hunters had been creatures of habit. The Navigators kept detailed, but rather disorganized records of all the Hunters comings and goings. In the city, there was a great deal of fragmentation of the signals, but if a Hunter stayed in one place long enough the Navigators would pick them up and the computer would automatically plot them on a city map. So he knew that, for instance, Nike had always visited a certain bar on Monday, presumably his day off. And he had disappeared on a Monday. Tomacita had liked to visit a certain restaurant on Thursdays… the day she disappeared. And so on.

At first, Thomas thought he had hit the jackpot with that revelation, but he'd quickly discovered that the records he was accessing were not classified. He sighed in disgust, and made a mental note to tell Signas to classify them immediately. But for now, as far as he could tell, any Hunter with the patience to go through them could have arranged these disappearances. All the Hunters had access to the patrol schedules, too. He'd proven nothing, although he could give the unit commanders a good kick in the pants for not investigating all these disappearances.

Although… Thomas frowned, checking over Zest's schedule. He didn't know Zest as well as his sister Angel, but he knew him well enough to know that 'habit' and 'Zest' were usually mutually exclusive terms. And while he wasn't exactly a social butterfly, he wasn't in the habit of going out alone either.

His suspicions were correct. The Navigator's records showed that Zest liked to play around in groups ranging from two to five, and the destinations had no rhyme or reason. A surprising number of two's, though… did Zest have a lover? Thomas shrugged that consideration away. But how had someone pinpointed Zest? Bad luck? Perhaps… there was always bad luck to be taken into account. Or something else?

Thomas shook his head, and pulled over a notepad. Perhaps, when Zest woke up, he might remember something useful. Until then, he had a presentation to make to Signas and the other unit commanders regarding his progress. Signas probably wouldn't be pleased with the information he had to give, but he would appreciate it. He wasn't the sort to prefer a comforting lie…

* * *

Three days later.

"X, you really, really shouldn't be doing that," Kumba said with a frown, fingering a large, nasty looking gun. It was an Armageddon 366, commonly used by police agencies to apprehend Reploid criminals and Mavericks. With stun settings for one, and lethal settings for the other. Right now, she had it on stun, and was unhappily certain she'd be using it shortly. X gave her a blank, uncomprehending look. "Touching his hair and standing over him like that." X blinked, then looked rather offended.

"I told you we're… together. I want to be here when he wakes up." X looked back down at Zest, obviously concerned for him, and Kumba gritted her teeth on what she wanted to say. _It's nice for you, that you care, X. But golly gee whiz, did you maybe miss that whole Maverick transmission? The one where, you know, a double of you gutted him and then kissed him as he was dying? What in hell do you think he's going to do when he wakes up with you in his face?_ She desperately wanted to say it, but there was just no point. She'd said it more gently earlier, but X was certain Zest wouldn't hurt him. Kumba had been in a similar place once, years ago, and she was just as certain X was wrong. But there was only one way to find out.

Zest's damage had been fixed very recently. The paint job on his armor still shone, and Zest looked like he was sleeping, his eyes closed and his face peaceful. His helmet was sitting on a nearby table, but his hair had not been repaired. Lifesaver and the other medics had more important things to take care of than pure cosmetics, and unlike paint, hair reattachment called for some skill. So Zest would be living with cropped hair for a while. That made Kumba uneasy, on several levels. She thought it was likely he would hate it, loathing the reminder of what had been done to him. Conversely, he might embrace it as a symbol of what he owed the Mavericks. Neither reaction was likely to have a wonderful effect on his sanity. Kumba remembered what it was like to cherish scars, nursing hatred with the memories of what had caused them…

Kumba took a deep breath, shoving away the memories as Lifesaver started the power up. She caressed her gun again, ignoring the strange looks a little blond medic was giving her. What was her name again? Cinnamon?

_There he goes._ Kumba tensed as Zest stirred, eyelids fluttering. X leaned over him, and Kumba winced. _Just get as close as you can! Simulate his dying moment! Idiot!_

Zest's reaction did not disappoint her, as he erupted in a whirlwind of violence, punching X in the… ouch. _Fist version of the Nutcracker.__ I wouldn't have done that myself, the angle was all wrong, but then he's a great deal stronger than I am._ As Zest slammed X against a nearby table and started trying to strangle him, Kumba saw his face. Zest was completely expressionless, but his eyes were like live coals, and she wanted to shudder. Zest was deep in a cold rage like nothing she had seen before. No, that wasn't entirely true… she had seen it from her father, once or twice. If he had really been her biological brother, she would have sworn this was her father's genes coming through. But then, she knew dad enjoyed killing, and so did Zest. Maybe they shared even more than that.

Those thoughts went through her mind at light speed, more instinct than actual thought. She raised her gun, and as she did, Zest's head turned at the movement. He was tracking, but there was no recognition at all in his face as he spotted her. He saw only a threat, and he jerked X around to use him as a shield.

Fortunately for X, Kumba knew Zest's training as well as her own, and had anticipated it. She was jumping to the side as Zest was pulling X around, and her shot hit him in the side, below his right arm. Zest jerked, then hit the floor in an unconscious heap. X stumbled to his feet, dazed and apparently in shock as the medics converged on them both.

"First Angel, now me." Kumba said out loud, to no one in particular. "Doesn't anyone around here listen?"

* * *

The second time, however, the Hunters took Kumba's advice. Instead of the repair bay, they decided to wake Zest up in a familiar, comforting location… his room. And instead of X, Chip, Axl and Angel were hovering over him as he lay in bed. X was outside the door, waiting for them to call him in. He desperately wanted to see Zest, but not until he was sure Zest was rational.

Zest stirred a second time, and groaned in pain. Angel smiled sympathetically. The stun gun Kumba had used on him wasn't at all painless. He opened his eyes… and relaxed immediately as he saw Chip.

"Chip?" Zest said softly, blinking up at his best friend. Then he turned his head a little, seeing… "Axl?" Axl beamed, and Zest reached out for him. Axl gripped his hand tightly, and grinned.

"Welcome back!" Zest smiled weakly at Axl's enthusiasm, then blinked as something warm and soft enfolded him. A girl, with brown hair, and she smelled like...

"Angel?" Zest said questioningly. "What are you doing here?"

"Ha!" She sniffed, annoyed with the question. "Did you really think we wouldn't care that you'd disappeared without a trace? Although it took these two long enough to contact us!" Chip and Axl both looked a little embarrassed.

"We thought he was with you," Chip protested. "How were we supposed to know that stupid note was a fake?" Then he hugged Zest too, making Angel squeal as she almost got squashed. She shoved Chip away, he pushed her back, although lightly, and-

"Guys, please!" Zest rubbed his face, as they stopped their horseplay with simultaneous blushes. "Are you trying to kill me again? I think I've died enough."

"Um," Axl said hesitantly, as Chip looked mortified and Angel giggled. "Zest? There's one other person who wants to see you. Um… X." Zest tensed, his eyes suddenly going cold and hard as he remembered… everything. Then he winced, and the rage flowed out of him. That X wasn't this X, but…

"Do I… have to?" He didn't want to. In fact, the last thing in the world he wanted was to see X.

"He's been worried too, Zest. Really worried." Chip said gently as Axl and Angel both looked seriously concerned. Zest closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Of course X had been worried. They were… they had… Damn. It made him feel sick to even think about it. Was that what Dark X wanted? That thought made him angry. He wasn't going to let Dark X control him with memories!

"Yes, I'll see him." Angel stood up to go get X, as Zest slowly sat up. He felt even sicker as X stepped into the room.

_They're identical. They're so identical._ The only thing that helped was X's smile. Zest clung to that difference, and managed to smile back.

"Zest… how are you feeling?" X asked, and Zest realized he was very awkward and… afraid? Then Zest blushed lightly as he remembered the previous time he had woken up. Looking back, he could see what must have happened.

"Uh, I'm fine, but how are you?" Zest asked. "I'm sorry, I just… flipped." That was putting it mildly. He had been trying to kill X, seriously trying, and there had been nothing in his mind but pure hate. Zest shivered slightly, remembering the horrible force of it.

"That's alright." X's smile was more genuine, now. "Kumba told me not to get that close to you, but, well… I thought I knew better." X kneeled down beside the bed, and suddenly hugged him. Zest stiffened in shock and something close to revulsion. Feeling X touch him was actually bringing him close to something Zest could only call a panic attack.

_I will not be ruled by this. I will not!_ Struggling with his reactions, Zest cautiously hugged X back, closing his eyes. It was so hard to tolerate…

Fortunately, he didn't have to deal with it long. The door opened, and X pulled away as everyone turned to look… Zest blinked, and pushed himself up as he saw Thomas in the door.

"Thomas? What are you doing here?" This was really confusing. Thomas hadn't had a lot to do with Zest during his childhood… his line of work called for him to be far away for years at a time. Zest estimated that in the three years he'd been alive, Thomas had been around for perhaps six months. They hadn't done much together during that time, so they weren't at all close. Thomas gave him a warm smile.

"I'm helping the Hunters root out their spy." Zest blinked, then tensed as he was reminded of everything that had happened to him. Thomas' expression became very serious. "Zest, do you remember anything that could hint at the spy's identity?" Zest winced, and tried to think about it. But it was so hard to think about that, when Dark X…

"Not… not right now, Thomas." Zest finally said, his voice a little hoarse. "Maybe later." Thomas examined Zest for a moment, then finally nodded. "I… need some time alone." Everyone else took the hint, and after some more hugs and fussing, they left. Zest watched them go, his thoughts turning inward.

Despite the video of his… death, he didn't think any of them realized fully what had happened. Kumba would guess, because she had a dark and suspicious mind, but she would respect his wishes. Thomas would also guess, but wasn't likely to do anything with his knowledge. So… if he didn't want therapy, he didn't have to get it. He needed it, he knew he needed it, but he wouldn't be forced into it. That was a bit of a relief. Zest didn't want it. The last thing he wanted to do was think about this past week.

Zest took a deep breath, closing his eyes. He wasn't sure how he would cope, but he would have to try.

* * *

Zest regarded himself blankly in the mirror. He shook his head, to feel his hair rustle, where it just barely reached his jaw, the ragged cut ends still feeling light and unnatural. Cain had offered to repair his hair... it would have been easy... but he had refused.

He looked down at the helmet in his hands, and carefully put it on. He regarded himself again in the mirror. That seemed more normal... if you didn't look directly into his eyes, or even too long into his face.

Zest sighed to himself. Everyone was so... solicitous. But he didn't want help. Whether he needed it was one matter... he probably did... but he just didn't want it. He only wanted to be left alone. Everyone was very concerned about how he was pushing his friends away…

Isolated as he was now, one thing his ordeal had not affected was his hunting skills. A small, vicious smile crossed his face at that thought. The Mavericks had loathed him before as a traitor, but now he'd given them great cause to fear. Oh, they'd have had cause to fear before... but only a quick death. Not so quick now, no...

Zest took a deep breath, and picked up a tiny cigarette from the table, lighting it. He took a deep drag from the marijuana. He tried not to use it too often, especially now, and nothing heavier. He knew that with is precarious state, it would be all too easy to become dependant now.

He sat back into his bed, taking another deep drag from the bong, letting the chemicals sooth the too raw nerves, dull all his senses. It just felt so much better. So much better, not feeling things.

He stubbed the cigarette out carefully, then curled up in his bed, not removing his armor. He hardly ever did anymore, except to shower, ignoring the discomfort it sometimes caused. If he'd thought about it, he'd have realized that was a sign of paranoia, but right now, he didn't care.

It had been a week since he'd been revived, and Thomas was no closer to isolating the traitor. They'd minimized some of the damage by putting the weekly schedules on a need-to-know basis, with each Hunter getting only the information of their own unit, but it was causing problems. Zest closed his eyes, trying to sleep… but his thoughts went back to the problem Thomas had given him.

Thomas had explained how Hunters had been picked off in the city, but how Zest himself didn't fit into the pattern, because his comings and goings were so random. So how had the Mavericks gotten him that night? Who had even known where he was going? He hadn't told anyone, had he?

Zest's thoughts suddenly slithered to a stop, and his eyes opened wide as he remembered. He had told someone. And it would make all the sense in the world, if it was true.

Zest slowly stood up, his blue eyes hard and cold as the arctic sea. Not even the marijuana could dull his rage. The more he thought about it, the more certain he became. As he walked out through Hunter HQ, his pace was slow and sure. Alia looked up, startled, as he entered the Navigation room.

"Zest! Ah… how can I help you?" Alia said with a friendly, but rather baffled smile. Zest ignored her, focusing on the other girl in the room.

"Nana," he said softly, making her name a verbal caress. Nana looked up from her console, surprised… then stiffened in alarm when he ignited his beam saber. "Nana. How are you doing today?" Somehow, that pleasantry, uttered in an almost loving tone, was more threatening than a screamed curse.

"Zest, what are you doing? Get away from her!" Alia was suddenly in between them, and Zest snarled, making the Navigator step back a pace. He glared at her, eyes icy with rage.

"She's the traitor, Alia. She gave them where I was going. She even asked me where the damn mailbox was to make sure- LOOK OUT!" Over Alia's shoulder, he had seen Nana tense and yank something out. He tried to shove Alia aside, but not quite in time. The Navigator gasped in shocked agony as a small vibro dagger opened a long gash in her side, then yelped in pain as Zest flung her to the floor and lunged at Nana, face twisted in rage.

The slender Operator tried to slip past him and run out of the room. She almost made it… but not quite. Zest first strike tore her almost in half, and he smiled as the blood splashed the walls.

He was still smiling when the first Hunters came into the room and pinned him against the wall, putting cuffs on him while the medics hurried to help Alia. He didn't even particularly mind being put under arrest.

They would find out the truth soon enough.


End file.
